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FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 
OF DUNCAN PHYFE 


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Warehouse, Salesrooms, and Workshop of 
Duncan Phyfe, 
at Nos. 168-170-172 Fulton Street, formerly 


Partition Street 


FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 
OF DUNCAN PHYFE 


BY 
CHARLES OVER CORNELIUS 


ASSISTANT CURATOR 
DEPARTMENT OF DECORATIVE ARTS 
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 





MEASURED DETAIL DRAWINGS 
BY STANLEY J. ROWLAND 
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 


PUBLISHED FOR 


THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
BY 


DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
GARDEN CITY NEW YORK 
1925 








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FOREWORD 


Duncan PuyFs is the only early American cabinet-maker to 
whom a very large group of furniture may be attributed on 
documentary grounds. Much of the attribution to other 
American cabinet-makers is based upon purely circum- 
stantial evidence, but in the case of Phyfe there exist docu- 
mented examples of practically every type that is shown 
herewith. The aim, therefore, has been to present at least 
all the general known types of furniture from Phyfe’s best 
period and as many variations of these types as space would 
permit. 

It has also been attempted to place this art-craft of the 
Early Federal Period in the United States against the back- 
ground of the time, thus to relate the utilitarian art to the 
influences—artistic, social, and economic—which controlled 
to a large degree the forms which it took. 

The book has been a result of the assembling of material 
for an exhibition of the work of Duncan Phyfe at the Metro- 
politan Museum of Art in New York. In the search for 
Phyfe furniture there appeared a larger group of more 
varied material than had ever been supposed to exist. 

It was deemed, therefore, advisable to put into permanent 
form this record of Phyfe’s handiwork as it is known to-day, 
with no pretense to an exhaustive treatise. It may be 
affirmed that the book includes most of what is known 
about Phyfe and his work up to date, but the many sur- 
prising finds during the search for material to exhibit would 


Vv 


vi FOREWORD 


lead any expert to speak with some hesitation in saying 
that all types or all variations of types of Phyfe furniture 
are included between these covers. At least those that are 
shown will form a valuable basis for future attribution. 
The author’s cordial thanks are due to those whose pos- 
sessions are illustrated in the book. It is only their courtesy 
which has made possible its compilation. To these the 
author’s appreciation is expressed: Mr. and Mrs. Warren 
B. Ashmead, Dr. and Mrs. Lewellys F. Barker, Mr. and Mrs. 
Harry H. Benkard, Mr. and Mrs. Allan B. A. Bradley, Mr. 
Henry de Forest Baldwin, Mr. Elihu Chauncey, The Colonial 
Dames of the State of New York, Mr. F. Kingsbury Curtis, 
Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. de Forest, Mr. and Mrs. Francis 
P. Garvan, Mr. and Mrs. R. T. H. Halsey, Mr. and Mrs. 
Herbert W. Johnston, Mr. and Mrs. V. Everit Macy, Mr. 
and Mrs. Howard Mansfield, Miss Jane Elizabeth Martin, 
Mr. and Mrs. Louis Guerineau Meyers, Mr. and Mrs. Henry 
Wilmerding Payne, Mr. I. N. Phelps Stokes, The New York 
Historical Society, The New York Public Library. 


CONTENTS | 


PAGE 
SS a ee ee a ee + 
CHAPTER 
I. Tue Enp or KNICKERBOCKER NEw YORK . 1 


Il. DUNCAN PHYFE AND THE ARTISTIC INFLUENCES 
Mrmr Mee ty. fete «| 80 


II. Tue Distinctive Quatiry or DuncAN PoyFe | 48 


IV. THe FurNitTuRE: CHAIRS AND BENCHES . . 62 

See eGterURNITURE:; SOFAS . . . . . . . 67 
Meee eee PURNITURE: TABLES . . . . ... % 
VII. Tur Furniture: MIsceELLANEOUS PIEcES . 79 


RCT OSTONG 6 6h.) cen val lac ee at we 82 


vil 





LIST OF HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS 


Warehouse, Salesrooms, and Workshop of Duncan 


Phyfe Frontispiece 

PLATE iri! 

I. Side chairs showing Sheraton influence. 6 

II. Side chairs showing Sheraton influence. 6 

III. Armchair, mate to side chair, Plate II . 6 

IV. Side chair with oak-leaf panel, Sheraton and ~ 

Directoire influences 7 

V. Slat-back chairs 14 

VI. Lyre-back chairs . Mr rae et 14 
VII. Armchair of Directoire type, curly a ee 

panels a Ae aS, 14 

VIII. Side chairs showing mee influence . naa 
IX. Armchair showing Empire influence. Part of 

suite with sofa, Plate X VII 22 

X. Window bench, without carving 22 
XI. Window bench with carved leaf panels ne 

acanthus legs 22 

XII. Sofa, Sheraton influence . 23 

XIII. Sofa, Sheraton influence . 26 

XIV. Sofa, Sheraton influence . Q7 

XV. Sofa, Directoire influence wilt 30 

XVI. Sofa, Directoire and Empire influences. 30 


ix 


x HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS 


PLATE 


XVII. 


XVIII. 
XIX. 


XX. 
XXI. 
XXII. 
XXITI. 
XXIV. 
XXV. 
XXVI. 
XXVIT. 
XXVIII. 
XXIX. 
XXX. 
XXXII. 
XXXIT. 
XXXITT. 
XXXIV. 
XXXYV. 
XXXVI. 
XXXVITI. 
XXXVITI. 
XXXIX. 


XL. 


FACING 
PAGE 


Sofa showing Directoire and Empire in- 
fluences eee ae ; : aoe 

Settee, Empire legs Ae ered oanelet Shas | 

Card table, Sheraton influence. The corner 
blocks are carved with the Prince of Wales 


feathers . .. i 
Card table, Sheraton rece ne 
Game table, Sheraton influence. . . . 88 
Pembroke table, Sheraton influence . . 38 
Drop-leaf extension dining-table . . . 38 
Sewing stand, Sheraton influence . . . 389 
Sewing stand. The silk bag is missing . 42 
Sewing stand. The silk bag is missing . 43 
Console table, urn pedestal. . . . . 46 
Tip-top candlestand . . eee 
Drop-leaf table, urn pedestal . . . . 46 
Sewing and writing stand .. .. , 47 
Dining-table . . . eae 
Card table without ae ee ee 
Sewing and writing stand . .. . . 654 
Drop-leaf table. << . .. 
Card table, urn pedestal . . . . . 54 
Card table with fluted drum... . 55 
Side table, four-post pedestal . . . . 58 
Drop-leaf table, four-post pedestal . . 59 


Dining-table, end view (below), side view 
(above)/ i.) -. tae . 
Drop-leaf table, end and side views . . 62 


HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS 


PLATE 


XLI. 
XLII. 
XLII. 
XLIV. 
XLV. 
XLVI. 
XLVI. 


XLVITI. 

XLIX. 
. Serving table . 
. Cheval glass 


Extension dining-table 

Sofa table with end supports 
Library table . 

Sofa table . 


Card table, crossed lyre pedestal 
Card table, crossed lyre pedestal 


Sideboard with veneered, 
reeded decorations 

Serving table . 

Buffet . 


. Piano case and trestle 

. High-post bedstead 

. Four types of bed-posts . 
. Trestle for a piano 


. Washstand 


carved, and 


FACING 
PAGE 


LIST OF LINE DRAWINGS 


FACING 
PAGE 


A. Details of sofa arms and legs, carved panels from 


sofas and from chair-backs. . . . . 48 
B. Typical lyres and chair slats with a panel froin the 

base of a dining-table . |... ee 
C. Four bed-posts . .. 52 
D. Table legs and supports aa a res ene a table 

base io ae ies: re 


EK. A piano trestle aud various Este of ‘aie posts 
and urn-shaped supports . . . . .. . 3S8 


FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 
OF DUNCAN PHYFE 





OS ESS 


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I 
THE END OF KNICKERBOCKER NEW YORK 


KNICKERBOCKER NrEw York is gone! In the tall canyons 
of lower Manhattan, few are the landmarks which recall to 
us the little city whose more fashionable citizens drove on 
bright spring afternoons to the pleasant country suburb of 
Greenwich Village, doubtless relieved, good horsemen as 
they were, that the hard paving of Broadway stopped at 
City Hall! The residences of people of fashion were then 
found on the Battery, while of the highest respectability 
were lower Broadway, upper Pearl and Nassau streets, 
Broad and Wall. Beyond the City Hall the softly rolling 
landscape was ribboned with shady roads, flanked here and 
there either by charming suburban homes to which the city 
families retreated during the summer heat, or by tidy farms 
whose owners were blissfully ignorant of eventual realty 
values. Surely a provincial city but, none the less, develop- 
ing more rapidly than it knew into a cosmopolitan one! 

It was not until the very last years of its existence’ that 
the consciousness of a Knickerbocker New York was formu- 


lated into anything definite. The Dutch traditions which 
1 


2 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


had remained so important an element in the eighteenth- 
century town had hung about the city without occasioning 
any self-conscious attention or comment. It remained for a 
brilliant little group of young writers to utilize these tradi- 
tions in their literary efforts and thus to preside in a two- 
fold capacity both as registrars of an epoch which was dying 
and as heralds of a new era which was just begun. 

The first twenty-five years of the nineteenth century were 
marked in New York by an amazing activity which extended 
into all departments of human endeavour. There was a rapid 
acceleration of commercial growth which called forth a 
corresponding development of mechanical invention. A 
social consciousness was evolving from the compact society 
of a provincial city into the beginning of a cosmopolitan at- 
titude toward local affairs. Civic improvements of sur- 
prising farsightedness were begun, and politics, both local 
and national, were hotly debated. The artistic expression 
of these contemporary interests kept equal pace. The 
artists who created and the patrons who supported the 
artistic achievements of the day were all in close touch 
with the life of the city in its various phases. 

The result of this expansion of interests and activities 
was the rapid outgrowing of the Knickerbocker town both 
literally and figuratively. The very consciousness of the 
Knickerbocker tradition, for the first time definitely ex- 
pressed, was in one way a romantic creation to which was 
lent the glamour of remoteness, and to which point was 
given by the survival up to date of many traits and customs 
of the early Dutch inhabitants. 

It was at the beginning of this interesting and important 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 3 


period that Duncan Phyfe came to live and ply his craft in 
New York. His early struggles to find a foothold coincided 
with the early years of the century, while the continually 
increasing recognition of his sincere craftsmanship and con- 
summate artistry kept pace with the changes in the city’s 
life and thought. His best work was done during this first 
quarter of the century and constitutes an important record 
of the cultural outlook of the people of the day. A brief 
glance, therefore, at the New York of the time, the New York 
which saw the accomplishment of Phyfe’s finest work, will 
give a necessary background against which to judge this 
utilitarian art which served its purpose of contributing 
largely to the creation of worthy standards of taste in the 
public of the time. 


By ten o’clock on the morning of the last day of the year 
1799 a sombre throng of citizens had assembled in Broadway 
near the triangular park which this thoroughfare formed 
with Chatham and Chambers streets. A muted key was 
set by the frequent signs of mourning visible throughout the 
orderly crowd and was emphasized by the contrast with the 
colours of the drooping flags, the brilliant hues of uniforms, 
military and naval, and the shining insignia of the foreign 
diplomats and their suites, the philanthropic societies, the 
Masonic lodges, and the Society of the Cincinnati. In or- 
dered ranks the cortége formed, each group falling into its 
appointed place—citizens, foreigners of various nations, 
representatives of the army, navy, and militia, of the civil 
government, paternal and philanthropic societies, mercantile 


4 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


groups, musical associations and clergy. Near the end came 
the great catafalque surmounted by the urn, glittering with 
burnished gold, draped in black, and flanked by eight pall- 
bearers. Thus with pomp and ceremony was the funeral 
of the great Washington commemorated by his fellow citi- 
zens of the country which he more than any one man had 
helped to found, and of the city which for a short time was 
its capital. 

The bier, followed by the General’s horse caparisoned in 
black, and led by two negro grooms, passed down the east 
side of the Common to the head of Beekman Street, thence 
through Beekman and Pearl streets up Wall Street to the 
Federal Hall. It was here on the 30th of April, 1789, that 
Washington had taken the oath of office as first President of 
the United States, and in recognition of this fact a short 
pause was made before the building. Following Broad and 
Beaver streets, it passed around the Bowling Green in front 
of the Government House, which had been built in the ex- 
pectation that New York would be the capital of the repub- 
lic. Through the double rows of the marchers the symbolic 
urn was carried up Broadway and into St. Paul’s Chapel, 
where it was placed before the altar. Solemn memorial 
services were held, a funeral oration was delivered by Gou- 
verneur Morris, and musical eulogies were chanted. The 
people dispersed to their homes, perhaps to discuss the great 
works of the first President of the new republic, perhaps to 
speculate upon the future of that republic in the new century 
which was just beginning. 

The death of Washington, practically coinciding as it did 
with the opening of the new century, marked the end of one 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 5 


period in the country’s history and the beginning of a new. 
The trying years of war, the more trying years of the con- 
solidation of independence won, were over. The Govern- 
ment of the United States of America was organized and 
founded upon a constitution. The time had come for the 
new country to try its mettle in competition with the great 
world without, no longer as a colonial possession, but as an 
independent nation conscious of its strength, the extent of 
which could be gauged only by its exercise. 

The route followed by the marchers in the Memorial 
Parade may well be taken as a summary outline of the city 
as it was at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Carry- 
ing out in the main the lines of growth suggested by the 
old Dutch town, the lower end of Manhattan was divided 
by streets which followed generally the shore lines of the 
East and Hudson rivers and were intersected at irregular 
intervals by cross streets running from river to river. The 
present location of the City Hall, which was not yet begun, 
marked a northern limit to any real city development. 
There, on the “Common,” stood the Bridewell, the City 
Alms House, and the Prison. Most of the country north 
of this point retained a purely rural aspect. Within easy 
reach was the Collect Pond around which youths and maid- 
ens sauntered on Sunday afternoons in summer or upon 
whose frozen surface they skated in winter. It was here 
in 796 or ’97 that John Fitch had made his crude experiments 
in steam navigation. Other uptown resorts for pleasure 
were the Old Vauxhall at the corner of Warren and Green- 
wich streets, a house built by Sir Peter Warren and a public 
garden patterned after its famous London original, while 


6 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


various road houses along the East River offered in their 
menus tempting specialties to the summer boating expedi- 
tions and winter sleighing parties which came their way. In 
so small a town as this New York there was no exclusively 
residential section, but in all the streets the residence and the 
shop, the church, the tavern, and the market elbowed each 
other without giving or taking offence. The finest houses 
now being built of brick with slate roofs were on the Battery. 
and in its immediate neighbourhood, lower Broadway and its 
intersecting side streets. Broadway was the Bond Street 
of New York and contained many fashionable and elegant 
shops. Already at this time New York had begun to feel 
itself the leading city of the eastern seaboard. Its location 
immediately rendered it the most important port for Euro- 
pean import as well as the most central point for domestic 
export. Founded originally as a trading post—not as a 
haven for religious or political freedom—it was but natural 
that the commercial aspect of the city should always have 
assumed a preponderant place and that the marts of trade 
should have stood cheek by jowl with the church and the 
dwelling. 

English though the city had been since the end of the 
seventeenth century, the Dutch tradition had been tena- 
cious, particularly in the outlying country districts in New 
Jersey, up the Hudson, and on Long Island. In these dis- 
tricts the changes in tradition, in customs and usage, had 
come slowly, while in the city itself a much more rapid de- 
velopment had occurred due to the increasing number of im- 
migrants from beyond the borders of the Low Countries. 
England preponderantly, of course, Ireland, Italy, and 


AONAQATANI NOLVYAHS ONIMOHS SUIVHO ACIS “I ALVId 





AONAOTANI NOLVUAHS DNIMOHS SHIVHO ACIS ‘Il ALVId 











PLATE III. 








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ARMCHAIR, MATE TO SIDE CHAIR 
PLATE II | 





PLATE IV. SIDE CHAIR WITH OAK-LEAF PANEL 
SHERATON AND DIRECTOIRE INFLUENCES 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 7 


France had all contributed to the growingly cosmopolitan 
population of the town. The French Revolution, with the 
resulting disorganization, led to a particularly large influx 
of cultivated Frenchmen. In numbers perhaps not greater 
than those of other nationalities which were coming at the 
same time, the conditions in France were such that the 
émigrés came almost wholly from the educated classes, 
members of the lesser nobility, and of the professional and 
artistic groups. It is not surprising, in view of this fact, 
that the influence of France and the civilization for which 
it stood—intensified by the memory of that country’s aid to 
America in her dark hour—should have had a marked in- 
fluence upon the city, particularly in its social and artistic 
life. The city’s social history of the period is marked by a 
gradual change during twenty-five years from an English to 
a French flavour in which was mingled the faintest memory 
of the earlier Dutch characteristics. 

Thus the original vigour of the city was reinforced by fresh 
infusions from abroad, in the repeated additions to its popu- 
lation of residents whose very presence in the new land ar- 
gued their possession of sturdy bodies, active minds, and not 
a little imagination. All of this vigorous growth in popula- 
tion was paralleled by commercial prosperity, a proportion- 
ate increase in public and private wealth, a constantly 
widening horizon of political and cultural interests—in short, 
the beginnings of a cosmopolitan and somewhat self-con- 
scious attitude toward the city itself and the world beyond 
its walls. Lengthy and detailed accounts of European 
affairs, predominantly the activities of Napoleon, fill large 
portions of the contemporary newspapers, as do the notices 


8 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


of arrival from and departures for Europe of those luxuries 
of fashionable life which each continent could offer to the 
other. ; 

As though timed to guide the thought and influence the 
actions of the youthful city, so recently out of leading strings, 
there arose a constellation of literary stars whose effort was 
both to give to the city a background of recorded legendary 
or actual history and to mould its contemporary life by the 
exercise of gentle social satire. The brightest star of all was 
Washington Irving who, as a child of six, had with his 
nurse joined the crowd which gathered before Federal Hall 
when the oath of office was administered to the first Presi- 
dent. Irving’s studies for the bar had been interrupted 
by an illness which necessitated a voyage to Europe, whence 
he returned in February, 1806. He found the city at a 
pleasant moment in its growth with an organized and 
mellow society which afforded both a subject and an 
audience for the kindly wit and humour of his satire. Al- 
though admitted to the bar, his greater satisfaction lay 
in his literary activities, among the first results of which were 
the Salmagundi papers. Based upon the suggestions of 
Addison’s Spectator, these essays were humorous satires upon 
the social foibles of the day and were written and pub- 
lished in conjunction with his brother, William, and James 
K. Paulding. His next effort, ““A History of New York 
from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch 
Dynasty by Diedrich Knickerbocker,” was heralded by an 
advertising campaign of thoroughly twentieth-century char- 
acter. In this history he not only satirized the pedantry of 
local antiquarians, but from the characteristics of the solid 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 9 


Dutch burgher created a distinct literary type which later 
from time to time he developed in the charming stories of 
Knickerbocker legendary lore which have given to parts of 
the Hudson valley a permanent place in the literary geogra- 
phy of the world. 

During a second lengthy sojourn abroad, Irving produced 
a number of exquisitely written stories and sketches upon 
English and continental themes which won for him his place 
among his European peers. Thus we see him not only as the 
creator of the first national literature based upon American 
incident but also as an author of international repute in the 
English reading world. 

These youthful spirits, of whom Irving was the leader, 
contributed their share to the social life and literary ac- 
tivities of the town. Known as the Knickerbocker group, 
these young men divided their time between the city and a_ 
charming bachelor’s hall, an old country home on the Pas- 
saic not far from Newark, celebrated in the Salmagundi 
papers as “Cockloft Hall.” Of this lively group Mr. Hamil- 
ton Wright Mabie has drawn a vividly sympathetic picture in 
his little book, “‘ The Writers of Knickerbocker New York.”’ 

During Irving’s protracted sojourn abroad, the other 
members of this group of his friends and contemporaries were 
busy making names for themselves. James Kirke Paulding, 
best known as a political writer and anti-British patriot, 
wrote not only political treatises and satires but, as well, 
poems, novels, and parodies. He raised his protest against 
English dominance in political as well as in literary and 
artistic affairs. At the same time the two friends, Fitz- 
Green Halleck and Joseph Rodman Drake, were carrying on 


10 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


the impulse given by Irving and Paulding to social and poli- 
tical satire. Endowed, as Mr. Mabie says, with talent, 
though not with genius, these four “conspired against the 
dullness of the town and made it smile at its own follies.”’ 

In 1822 James Fenimore Cooper came to the metropolis, 
heralded by his reputation as the author of “The Pioneers” 
and “The Pilot.” He was followed in 1825 by William 
Cullen Bryant, whose reputation as a poet was firmly based 
upon “Thanatopsis” and “Lines to a Waterfowl.” Still 
attached to his career as a lawyer, 1t was some time before 
Bryant made his permanent connections as an editor. Dur- 
ing the years 1821-1822, Richard Henry Dana Ist. edited in 
New York the short-lived magazine, The Idle Man. With 
his Bostonian background and his New York affiliations, he 
was a most important link between the literary groups of the 
two cities. 

With the coming of these men and others toward the close 
of the first quarter of the century, the beginnings of a dif- 
ferent school of writing were heralded. They are less a part 
of the last days of Knickerbocker New York than they are 
of nineteenth-century America, and they form a connecting 
link between a time which seems to us remote and a present 
which was, but just now, with us. 

The artistic and intellectual interests of the town were 
nourished not only upon literary food. As a pendant to 
the group of writers, an equally vigorous company of artists 
and architects was working with a knowledge and sureness 
of touch which, while reflecting the changing tastes of the 
present, argued no lack of appreciation of the great tradi- 
tions of the past. Here, too, we find men of versatile minds 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 11 


and training excelling not alone in one thing but in several, 
taking their places as active and conscientious citizens in the 
affairs of the city and the nation. 

In February, 1801, there was opened in rooms in the 
Government House near the Battery an exhibition of paint- 
ings presented to the city by Napoleon Buonaparte, First 
Consul of the French through Robert Livingston, the 
Ambassador of the United States at Paris. To Chan- 
cellor Livingston, also, was due the establishment of the 
Academy of Arts which was formed by subscription in 
February, 1802, and reorganized in 1817 with Trumbull as 
president. As the Academy thrived, there were added to 
the collection “‘antique statues, busts, bas-reliefs, and books,” 
among the last, twenty-four volumes of Piranesi, presented 
by Napoleon. Most of the “antique statues”’ were, to be 
sure, casts bearing such awe-inspiring names as Belvidere 
Apollo, the Venus of the Capitol, and the Laocoén. Of the 
““moderns’’ are mentioned busts of Washington, Hamilton, 
Clinton, West, and three of Napoleon. 

Another popular resort for the artistically curious was 
John Vanderlyn’s “Panoramic Rotunda.” Here, on Cham- 
bers Street east of the City Hall, the well-known artist held 
an exhibition in a hall built for the purpose in 1818. The 
motley group of panoramic scenes included the Palace and 
Gardens of Versailles painted by Vanderlyn; the City of 
Paris by Barker; the City of Mexico, the Battle of Waterloo, 
and the City of Athens. A smaller connecting gallery was 
used by Mr. Vanderlyn to show his own paintings including 
his Caius Marius which had received a second prize at Paris. 

Not far from the Rotunda on Broadway near the south 


12 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


angle of the park was Mr. Paff’s antiquity shop. He had 
no competitor in the fine arts of buying, selling, or repairing 
pictures. In the Architectural Rooms of Ithiel Towne and 
M. E. Thompson, in the Exchange, was assembled an ex- 
tensive collection of books and prints relative to this 
noble art. 

Of the painters whose names may fairly be associated with 
this period which we are reviewing, two are known to us 
chiefly by their artistic works, two by their scientific ac- 
complishments. 

John Vanderlyn and John Trumbull, historical, landscape, 
and portrait painters, ranked high as artists who painted 
in the taste and spirit of their time. Vanderlyn, a real 
Knickerbocker, born in Kingston-on-the-Hudson, studied, 
like the other painters of his generation, first in this country, 
then abroad. He was, in fact, the first American painter to 
study in France, rather than in England. His chief rival 
in New York, and by no means a friendly rival at that, was 
John Trumbull. 

Trumbull, by the accident of birth, began his life with the 
advantages of good family and thorough education. His 
father was the Revolutionary Governor of Connecticut and 
Harvard was his college. In 1804 he came to New York 
with his English wife and set up his establishment in a house 
at the corner of Pine Street and Broadway. A good deal of 
an opportunist, he had made other visits to New York, us- 
ually, as now, in the effort to further his own success. His 
return found him well known as an historical and portrait 
painter, the pupil of Benjamin West, a soldier and a diplomat. 
He remained in America until 1808—the years from 1794 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 13 


until 1806 had been prosperous but the embarrassments of 
commerce between 1806 and 1814 hit heavily the wealthy 
commercial clientéle of the painter. Again in 1816 he re- 
turned—the War of 1812 had come and gone while he was in 
the enemy’s country—and his first effort was to revive the 
Academy of Arts of which he was elected president. From 
this time he was chiefly occupied in painting historical scenes 
for the Washington Capitol, then rebuilding. His relation 
to the Government was as nearly as possible that of a “‘court”’ 
painter. His work is a characteristic note upon the period, 
for it breathes the picturesque glory of battle, it depicts the 
Important occasions in the foundation of the Government, 
and portrays the leading figures who took part in these 
events. 

Robert Fulton and Samuel F. B. Morse are best known 
to us by their scientific contributions—Fulton for his suc- 
cessful forwarding of the use of steam in navigation, Morse 
as the inventor of the telegraph. But both of these men 
began life as painters and have left a number of examples of 
their work which bespeak their skill in an art which later was 
crowded out of their lives by scientific investigation. 

Morse in 1824 was living in New York and was commis- 
sioned by the Corporation of the city to paint the portrait 
of the venerable Lafayette, who was then beginning his tri- 
umphant tour through the United States. Two years later 
he was instrumental in founding the National Academy of 
Design, of which he was the first president. ‘This step 
brought about his ears the vituperations of the leaders in the 
Academy of Arts. For some years after this his painting 
and lecturing were continued before his inventions began to 


14 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


occupy all his energies. A charming fictional treatment of 
Morse’s life is the delicate pen picture drawn in F. Hopkin- 
son Smith’s “The Fortunes of Oliver Horn.” 

Fulton, born in 1765, had practically given up portrait 
painting by 1794, according to Dunlap. His training had 
been similar to that of Trumbull and Morse. He had 
received instruction and encouragement from West in Lon- 
don, and had travelled on the Continent. It was during his 
residence in England, while he studied and painted, that he 
first became seriously interested in canal navigation and 
later, when an intimacy grew up between him and Chan- 
cellor Livingston in Paris, his dreams of the accomplishment 
of steam navigation had begun to come true. 

Henry Inman, born in 1801, was one of the younger group 
of painters whose earlier work falls within our period. Ap- 
prenticed to John W. Jarvis at the age of fourteen, he was 
one of the organizers and the first vice-president of the Na- 
tional Academy of Design. Listed as a portraitist, he ex- 
celled both in miniature and oil painting, while in the latter 
medium his work included not only figure and portrait work, 
but genre and landscape as well. Inman’s teacher and 
patron, Jarvis, was an eccentric soul who painted much and 
well both as a miniaturist and as a painter in oils. He not 
only worked in New York—with whose art, however, he is 
particularly associated—but travelled to Philadelphia, Balti- 
more, Charleston, and New Orleans to execute commissions 
for portraits. 

Charles B.-J.-F. de Saint Mémin worked in New York from 
1793 to 1798, returned in 1810 for a short time and again in 
1812. <A representative of the type of French artist who 


SUIVHO MOVA-LVIS A ALVId 





Q@ONGANTANI ANIMA NA ONIMOHS SUIVHO ACIS “IIIA ALVITd 





OF DUNCAN PHYFE 15 


came to this country after the Revolution in his own land, 
Saint Mémin engraved small medallion portraits of many of 
the most prominent people in the larger cities of the country. 
His technical method appealed to the spirit of the time. In 
executing his portraits, mostly in profile, he made a draw- 
ing which he reduced by pantograph to the small dimen- 
sions of his medallion. The copper plate was then engraved 
and the original drawing, life-sized in crayon, the engraved 
plate, and twelve proofs printed from it, were delivered to 
the sitter for the sum of thirty-three dollars! Saint Mémin’s 
etched silhouettes are less well known than his engraved 
portrait medallions, but his views of New York are familiar 
to all interested in the earlier aspect of the city. : 

The work of these artists is a correct indication of the 
contemporary spirit. The chief works of each of them 
fall into one of the two groups of portrait or historical paint- 
ing. The first group, that of portraits, was the inevitable 
result of a successful commercial era when fortunes were 
being made and families were assuming in their own eyes an 
importance which could well be expressed and perpetuated 
in this way. In the second group, that of historical paint- 
ings, the story of the founding of the republic is told in a 
familiar language full of pride in the bravery of its soldiers 
and the wisdom of its statesmen. 

In a contemporary list of New York artists in which the 
names of Vanderlyn, Trumbull, and Morse occur, there are 
also mentioned the two architects, Thompson and Towne. 
To these must be added the name of John Macomb, the 
architect of the City Hall. 

This building, the finest of its time in the city, if not in 


16 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


the United States, was begun in 1803. The premium for the 
best plan had been awarded to Macomb and Mangin, though 
there is still controversy as to how much credit is due to 
Mangin in the conception of the design. The prevalence of 
the yellow fever at the time of the laying of the cornerstone 
was something of a damper to the ardour of the citizens and 
was an accurate omen of the vicissitudes which were to beset 
the architect during the years before the completion of 
the building in 1812. The twenty-five thousand dollars — 
voted in 1802 had been expanded to half a million by 
the time the building was finished. It is unnecessary to 
describe this little gem of early-nineteenth-century architec- 
ture for it may be visited any day in its present surroundings 
of skyscrapers. It is said that although the front and sides 
were built of Stockbridge marble, the north side was brown- 
stone, painted, since it seemed hardly likely that any impor- 
tant development of the city would occur north of the City 
Hall Park! ‘This story is not, however, consistent with the 
plan of the city as laid out by the commissioners in 1811, 
from which there has been but little deviation since. It 
would require much space to tell the story of the building 
of the new City Hall or to do justice to the professional abil- 
ity and artistic genius of John Macomb. Let it suffice to 
put him at the head of the list of the New York architects of 
his day and to allow his masterpiece to speak for him. 

Of the two architects Thompson and Towne, we have 
heard in connection with the library of architectural books, 
prints, and drawings which they had established. A sur- 
viving though dormant example of Thompson’s work is 


the marble building which housed the U. S. Branch Bank in 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 17 


Wall Street, where the new Assay Office now stands. This 
dignified facade, with its rusticated ground story supporting 
four Ionic columns, pediment, and entablature, will shortly 
be reérected in its permanent location as the south facade of 
the wing of American Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan 
Museum of Art. The material used was the marble of West- 
chester which was superseding the brown freestone of New 
Jersey and which was an adequate substitute for the fine 
marble brought at so great expense from Stockbridge, Mas- 
sachusetts, for the City Hall. 

Ithiel Towne was one of the more prominent architects of 
the city and possessed a very fine architectural library which 
was freely open to the use of students. Friend and associate 
both of A. J. Davis and M. E. Thompson, Towne designed 
and built many buildings both alone and in conjunction with 
Davis. Much of his surviving work is, however, an expon- 
ent of revival architecture, whether of the Greek or Gothic 
style, and falls just outside our period either in time or in 
spirit. 

Thus the fine arts of painting, sculpture, architecture, and 
literature were not without representation in the early re- 
publican metropolis. Music and the theatre, too, enjoyed 
considerable favour. The Park Theatre in Chatham Street 
reigned supreme as the home of the drama and the opera. 
Gutted by fire in 1820, it was reopened on the first of Au- 
gust, 1821, to renewed glory, and was advertised as a fire- 
proof structure to soothe the timorous! Traffic rules for 
approach to it by carriages were necessitated by the crush 
and confusion of vehicles bringing their fashionable fares. 

A number of other theatres attempted to rival the Park, 


18 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


but its fine location near the new City Hall] and in the heart 
of an exclusive district left it little to fear. An amusing 
touch is seen in the rise from notoriety to gentility of The 
Theatre, Chatham Street, not far from the Park. Ori- 
ginally somewhat déclassée, by 1824 it was considered a 
‘reputable theatre in every respect,’ perhaps owing to its 
rebuilding and refurbishing in that year. Besides the three 
established theatres running before 1825 there were many 
other places of amusement, but none so attractive as Castle 
Garden, the old fortress off the Battery, which had been re- 
christened for its mission of peace and pleasure. With the 
covered amphitheatre surrounded by a broad promenade, 
the lively band and the myriad twinkling lamps at night, 
Castle Garden formed the most notable resort in the city 
and was constantly thronged by a gayly dressed crowd in 
all seasonable weathers, although its popularity with the 
smart set fluctuated somewhat from year to year. Here 
landed the distinguished visitor, Lafayette, in October, 1824, 
to receive from the city the most spontaneous welcome it 
has ever given toa foreign guest. The city papers were filled 
with advertisements of dancing teachers—mostly with good 
French names—and the terpsichorean art found many 
devotees. 

It is difficult to separate from the record of the artistic 
growth of the city its contemporaneous commercial and civic 
expansion. The mental picture of New York of this time is 
a composite of pleasant social life and commercial activity, 
of artistic effort and civic improvement, all interspersed with 
timely political controversy. It includes the continued 
stimulation of all of these by new inventions and far-reach- 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 19 


ing plans for the future. Unfortunately, in a word picture 
it is impossible to unite all of these ideas so compactly, and 
almost equally difficult to condense into a few paragraphs 
the story of any one of the many departments of endeavour. 
Particularly is this true of the physical and commercial 
aspects of the city’s growth which very closely reacted upon 
its artistic efforts, while the political questions of the day, 
centring very closely around parties dominated by the per- 
sonalities of their leaders, are an excessively involved series 
of controversies which were the subject of heated dispute 
and personal antagonism. 

The outside influences which acted most strikingly—and 
effectively—upon the city were those due to wars, fires, and 
pestilences. In some ways they hindered, in some ways 
helped, the city’s expansion; certainly they all changed its 
geographical appearance. ‘To wars and rumours of wars, to 
embargoes laid and lifted, were due the fluctuations of import 
and export which in large degree controlled the commercial 
prosperity and depression alternating in the records of cus- 
toms revenue. Who would think of having his own or his 
wife’s portrait painted or a new house built when the em- 
bargo was laying a lean hand upon every man’s income? 

During the early years of the century, the Napoleonic 
Wars occupied the stage of the world. The United States, 
a young but important maritime commercial nation, might 
well have been crushed between the upper and nether mill- 
stones, France and Britain. By turns and together these 
two nations flirted with or scowled at the young republic 
whose commerce was affected by the interference of French 
or British war legislation. The delicate situation resulting 


20 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


from this European condition, very complicated in detail, 
was resolved into actual war with England by the declara- 
tion of war in April, 1812. 

The war found the country insecurely united as a political 
entity and considerably divided in its attitude toward the 
conflict itself. The general feeling in New York had been 
against war because of the interference with commerce, 
but when once the country was definitely involved, the city 
did not fall behind in its participation. Twenty-six priva- 
teers were fitted out at New York before October, volun- 
teers were trained on land, large subscriptions to the war 
loan were obtained, and every effort was made to render 
the fortifications of the city adequate. 

The city was the scene of several spectacular returns of 
war heroes. In September an enthusiastic reception was 
given to Commodore Hull of the U.S.S. Constitution after his 
defeat of H.M.S. Guerriére on August 19th. Captain Deca- 
tur sailed away from New York in his frigate, the United 
States, and returned in December the victor over H. M. 
frigate Macedonian, which he had disabled on October 25th 
by force of superior gunnery. A great banquet was given 
on December 29th for Decatur and Hull, both of whom had 
received the freedom of the city and had been asked to sit 
for their portraits which were to hang in the City Hall. The 
effect of these two naval victories did much to hearten the 
citizens by the proof of the prowess of the Americans when 
pitted against the greatest naval power of Europe. 

Numerous other lesser naval victories were celebrated and 
land defeats mourned, but the climax of enthusiasm was 
reached in the illuminations and ceremonies in October, 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE | 


1813, in honour of Perry’s victory on Lake Erie in September. 
He, too, received the freedom of the city and his portrait was 
requested for the City Hall. Great rejoicing greeted the 
news of the signing of the treaty of peace in Ghent, which 
reached the city in February, 1815. 

Fires, great and small, were of periodic occurrence in the 
town. The record of an extensive fire in an ancient section 
is usually followed by the projection of some fine stone or 
brick buildings soon to rise from the ashes. The yellow 
fever and other plagues which from time to time devastated 
the population were instrumental in extending the familiar- 
ity of the city dwellers to the delightful country near by. 
Greenwich Village grew into a thriving town during’ the 
epidemic of 1822. The disease appeared in Rector Street 
about the middle of July, and by the 20th of August practi- 
cally all sorts of business offices were removed to Greenwich 
Village—even the ferries changed their courses—and scarcely 
any residents were left south of the City Hall. Early in 
November the citizens were able to return to their homes, 
leaving behind them, however, enough people to make up a 
nucleus for future growth. 

Due to the desire partly to guard against the spread of 
disease, partly to simplify the topography of the city, very 
many changes and improvements were made in its geo- 
graphical layout during the period. Whole streets in the 
old part of town were widened, Hudson and Washington 
Squares laid out, planted and surrounded by stately man- 
sions. The triangle of ground, now Hanover Square, was 
cleared of its buildings and made a breathing space. A plan 
for the future development of the island was drawn up, the 


22 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


various fresh-water ponds were filled in, and the low rolling 
hills surrounding the Collect were levelled for filling. 

At the same time these civic improvements were going 
on, the whole situation with reference to transportation 
was revolutionized by the application of steam to navi- 
gation. Fulton’s successful establishment of steamboats on 
the Hudson was one of the most important events of the 
period in this country, if not in the world. The inventor’s 
early death in 1815 prevented his witnessing the full develop- 
ment of the plans which he, with Robert Livingston, had 
inaugurated. By 1825, about one hundred steamboats of 
every description had been built in New York, passage to 
Albany was accomplished in ten to fifteen hours, the trip to 
England or France in about twenty-five days or a month. 
There were also lines to Vera Cruz, Savannah, Charleston, 
Mobile, New Orleans, Boston, Richmond, and Havana. 

The establishment of these lines of steamship communica- 
tion with European and American ports resulted in a huge 
increase both in the population of New York and in its com- 
merce. The population in 1800, about 60,489 inhabitants, 
had by 1825 reached 168,000, an average increase of about 
4,000 a year. The value of merchandise passing through the 
port, in 1800 about fourteen million dollars, by 1825 was 
more than thirty-four millions. Marked downward fluctua- 
tions resulted from the embargoes of the Napoleonic Wars and 
from the War of 1812, while the too great revival of importa- 
tion after the latter war led to a paralysis of domestic trade 
and manufacture which affected all classes of society. 

By the year 1825, however, the process of stabilization had 
pretty well worked itself out. Most of the activities which 








PLATE IX. ARMCHAIR SHOWING EMPIRE INFLUENCE. 
PART OF SUITE WITH SOFA, PLATE XVII 





CARVING 


WINDOW BENCH, WITHOUT 


PLATE X. 


SOT SQHEINVOV GNV STUNVWd AVAT GHAUVO HALIM HONGAET MOGNIM (“IX ULVId 





GQONADQTANI OLVUAHS ‘VHOS “IIX ALVId 








OF DUNCAN PHYFE 23 


have here been so briefly suggested were established in their 
regular courses. From the provincial city had evolved a 
young metropolis, filled with a considerable sense of its own 
importance, interested no longer exclusively in its own af- 
fairs but branching out in all directions to make valuable 
contacts with other parts of the country and with lands be- 
yond the seas. The growth of New York had been more 
rapid than that of any other city on the eastern seaboard, 
and already through its port came and went a proportion- 
ately larger flow of export, import, and immigration. Its 
natural position rendered it particularly convenient as a 
centre of distribution for the rest of the country. 
Transportation by land had not kept pace with transpor- 
tation by water. The application of steam to navigation 
had given to the steamboat an advantage which it took the 
locomotive many years to discount, and even before the use 
of steam was thought of transport by water seemed far 
simpler than by land. Washington himself, before the 
Revolution, realized that if the great natural resources of the 
continent were to be deflected to the eastern seaboard, and 
away from the French province of Louisiana, served as it 
was by the Mississippi valley, some artery of transportation 
must be found between the region west of the Alleghanies 
and the Catskills. To him, the preferable route for this 
artery would lead into the Potomac. With a group of im- 
portant Virginians, he had projected the building of a great 
canal between the Ohio and Potomac rivers. The site, 
which he later chose for the capital city, was thus, in his plan, 
destined to be near the metropolitan and commercial centre 
of the eastern coast, the great port of import from Europe 


24 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


and export from America. A fully organized company 
considered the scheme, surveys were made, capital was 
promised, and Washington was made president of the cor- 
poration for the development of the plan. Haste was desir- 
able since there were already rumours of an important canal 
projected in northern New York State, to connect the Great 
Lakes with the Hudson River, though the British possession 
of Niagara was likely to give the proposed Ohio-Potomac 
canal a monopoly for some years. 

Washington’s election as President of the republic meant 
the relinquishment by him of all private business connec- 
tions. He resigned from the canal organization, though 
never ceasing to give it his interest and to urge its construc- 
tion as a vital step in the development of the country. But 
without his actual presence at the helm, the movement 
slowed down and finally was abandoned. 

Washington’s feeling that the unity of the country de- 
pended upon its being closely linked together by great con- 
verging highways was shared by other men of his day who, 
however, differed from him in their choice of location for 
the important seaport which was necessary as an outlet and a 
distributing point. As early as 1783 Washington and Gov- 
ernor George Clinton, on a trip to Saratoga Springs and 
through the Mohawk valley, had considered the feasibility 
of a canal from Oswego to Albany. Several other sugges- 
tions for canals in northern New York State to connect the 
Great Lakes with the Hudson were made from time to time, 
but it was not until 1810 that DeWitt Clinton, the great ad- 
vocate of the Erie Canal, gave a fresh impetus to the move- 
ment. From that time until its final completion the sup- 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 25 


porters of the project had to fight against the most bitter 
opposition based both upon incredulity as to the practica- 
bility of the canal and doubt of the capacity of the state 
to furnish the means to complete it. 

Begun on July 4, 1817, the work was finished in the au- 
tumn of 1825. At ten o’clock in the morning of October 
26th of that year the first canal boat, Seneca Chief, left Buf- 
falo with a distinguished group of passengers. The event 
was announced to the state by the booming of cannon from 
one end of the canal at Buffalo to New York and back at 
regularly timed intervals. On the 4th of November, the 
Seneca Chief arrived at New York. 

It was fitting that the city which had both originated and 
supported the building of the Erie Canal from the beginning 
should have led in the ceremonies attending its realization. 
The event was celebrated in New York by extraordinary 
civic and naval ceremonies and the enthusiasm of the people 
reached a height seldom if ever attained before or since. The 
celebration was in two parts, on sea and on land. The grand 
fleet had arrived before sunrise on November 4th and the 
day opened to the accompaniment of roaring cannon and 
pealing bells. The Washington steamed down to welcome 
the fleet, which was dressed in the brilliant flags appropriate 
to the occasion. The naval procession filed past the Bat- 
tery and was saluted by the military on Governor’s Island 
and in the forts at the Narrows. It then joined the U. 5S. 
Schooner Porpoise, moored within Sandy Hook, where the 
ceremony of the wedding of Lake Erie with the Atlantic was 
to be performed. 

A painted keg which had been made for the purpose and 


26 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


filled with water from Lake Erie was emptied into the waters 
of the Atlantic by Governor Clinton, who delivered a short 
address. In commingling the waters of the Atlantic with 
those of our Great Lakes, he said that he was thus com- 
memorating the “wisdom, public spirit, and energy of the 
people of the State of New York” in establishing navigable 
communication between these two great bodies of water. 
Just before the ceremony the resolution was taken to pre- 
serve a portion of the water in bottles of American fabric, to 
enclose these in a handsome box made by Duncan Phyfe 
from a log of cedarwood brought from Lake Erie, and to send 
the case to Major-General Lafayette, so recently a visitor to 
the city. After this impressive ceremony the vessels drew in 
to shore to witness the great land procession as it passed 
around the Battery. 

This second part of the day’s celebration was already 
under way. The procession had formed under the direction 
of the Grand Marshal, on the west side of Greenwich Street 
with its right on Marketfield Street, and by eleven o’clock 
the line was already in motion. 

The greatest land procession which had ever been seen 
in the city, this parade was arranged in four divisions. Pre- 
ceded by mounted trumpeters came the Grand Marshal of 
the day, General Augustus Fleming, with his four aides all 
mounted, uniformly dressed, wearing white satin collars and 
rosettes and carrying short white batons tipped with gold. 
These officials of the day were followed by the Corporation 
Band. . 

Following were the four divisions of marchers in whose 
ranks were represented all of the associations of crafts- 


GAONGAQNTANI NOLVYAHS “VAOS ‘IIIX ALVId 





SOON 2 EaNe NO. EVIL Se vo OS” ATX ey fel 





OF DUNCAN PHYFE . 27 


men, tradesmen, and mechanics, the fire department, stu- 
dents, officers of militia, and the Masonic lodges—in all, 
about seven thousand. Each of the thirty or more sections 
of the line was headed by a colourful banner painted with 
elaborate devices which in many cases was followed not only 
by marchers in ranks, but by large floats. The fire com- 
panies, particularly proud of their brilliantly painted engines, 
marched in high beaver hats and long-tailed broadcloth 
coats with the engines and implements of their calling taste- 
fully (so the records tell us) decorated with paint, silks, and 
velvets. Some of the magnificent engines in their gaudy 
paint were mounted on floats that were covered with rich 
Brussels carpet! 

Due to the nearness of Election Day, the assemblage of 
armed forces was forbidden, so that the parade represented 
purely the civic life of the city. The line of march led up 
Greenwich Street to Canal and Broadway, up Broadway to 
Broome Street, through Broome to the Bowery, and down 
the Bowery to Pearl and the Battery. The dazzling line 
reached the Battery about three o’clock, at which time, the 
aquatic part of the celebration having been completed, the 
vessels had drawn in close to shore. The procession passed 
around the broad walk at the edge of the Battery under the 
eyes of the notables on shipboard. As the end of the proces- 
sion passed, the officials of the Corporation of the City dis- 
embarked with their invited guests and fell in at the rear, 
following all the way to the City Hall, where the procession 
dispersed. 

This ended the festivities of the afternoon. In the even- 
ing the City Hall was illuminated by thousands of lamps and 


28 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


candles and by a great display of fireworks. The next day 
the chief guests were entertained on board the steamer 
Chancellor Invingston, and on Monday, the seventh, the 
whole series of festivities was concluded at a grand ball 
given by the officers of the Militia. 

In contrasting the two great parades, more than a quar- 
ter of a century apart—the one commemorating the death 
of Washington, the other celebrating a great achievement— 
we cannot fail to recognize vividly the changes which had 
occurred in the city during twenty-five years. The different 
lines of march of the two give some suggestion of the geo- 
graphical expansion of the town. In the first, the groups of 
marchers were formed on the basis of social cleavage; in the 
second, chiefly on a basis of the various lines of human en- 
deavour found in an active commercial community. There 
is almost a suggestion of labour unions in the closely knit 
groups of craftsmen and mechanics who rallied behind the 
banners of their callings. Here is suggested a civic life 
whose complexity required a definite grouping of its com- 
ponent parts—twenty-five years or more before one group 
in the parade had been composed of “‘citizens’’ and included 
all those who were not definitely allied with some one of the 
military, philanthropic, or fraternal organizations. In the 
celebration of 1825 there is seen a record of the scientific and 
commercial advance of the years immediately preceding, the 
shaping of a social structure which has continued to the 
present day, and the consciousness of unbounded resources 
in the newly accessible lands to the westward which were 
now directly connected in a commercial way with all parts 
of the globe. 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 29 


The concomitant of this emphasis upon the scientific and 
commercial aspect of the city’s growth was the decided low- 
ering of the standards of taste in things artistic. Nothing 
more homely, nor at the same time more gaudily brilliant, 
than the preparations and decorations for the Erie Canal 
Celebration can be imagined as we compare them with the 
more distinguished efforts of an earlier generation. 

The temporary death-knell of taste in the United States 
had been tolled, and the interest of the creative minds of the 
country was swinging away from esthetic matters to those of 
scientific and commercial importance which were prescribed 
by the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century. Al- 
most one hundred years after this interest seems to be swing- 
ing back to a normal position which includes in its scope both 
science and art, each with its proper emphasis in the sum 
total of cultural values. And the development of the zsthe- 
tic component of this modern culture must find its roots in 
a time when its standards were still high, its ideals still fine, 
and the integrity of its craftsmanship still unsullied by me- 
chanical device. 


ae y Pr=n 0 sn aay T LW, pL 
SN. S S a ee —~ 
DIOS SAS . } n~ n)) errs We 


seers Ns Gee. fiddd Ei Rsscsssr || 
eae ul ies oh oe 








Il 


DUNCAN PHYFE AND THE ARTISTIC 
INFLUENCES OF HIS TIME 


Duncan Puyre (1768-1854) was born in the days of the 
great eighteenth-century furniture makers—in the Age of 
Cabinet-makers, as it has sometimes been called. In France, 
the reign of Louis XV and the Pompadour had seen the 
supremacy of the minor arts upheld by the great ébénistes 
and cizeleurs. ‘These men enlisted the services of the most dis- 
tinguished designers, painters, and sculptors of the day 
in the perfection and enrichment of the gorgeous furniture 
which filled the royal chateaux and those of the nobility. 
The craftsmen who later lent distinction to the work of the 
reign of Louis XVI, and of the post-revolutionary epochs 
of the Directory, the Consulate, and the Empire, were being 
trained in this school of noble design and of perfection in 
execution whose standards they carried on into the early 
nineteenth century. In England, Thomas Chippendale 
was at the height of his popularity and the designs in his 
“Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director” were still 
undisputed in their influence. Robert Adam, not long since 


returned from Italy, had already been appointed architect 
30 


AXO ALY Id 
GONGOTANI AVIOLOANIG ‘VAOS “AX AL 


ee enee ne 


Le R88 ER eo ew wie 





SHONATNIANI AUYIMWA AGNV ANIOLOUUICG ‘VAOS [AX aLV Id 








SHONGOATANI AMINA ANV AUIOLOAYIG DNIMOHS VWAOS ‘“IIAX LLV Id 





Rs ora | 





eee 


abn oe § 


Se eres 84 
SRT oreo room aaseseetess 












VAOS AO AdAL NOLVUAHS AHL NO GNOOA 
G@SOHL OL UVIIWNIS ‘STUNVd GHAUVO ANV SOUT AXIMWNA AU LLAS “LITIAX FLV 1d 





FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 31 


to the King and was soon to make his taste predominate 
over the elaboration of the Chippendale following. George 
Hepplewhite, whose influence upon Phyfe must be taken 
into account, was working at his trade and acquiring the ex- 
perience in furniture design and construction of which the 
Hepplewhite “Guide” later gave ample evidence. Thomas 
Sheraton, Phyfe’s immediate inspiration, then a youth ap- 
_ prenticed to a provincial craftsman, was imbibing a knowl- 
edge of the mechanics of his craft as well as formulating a 
complete conception of religious doctrine which bred in him 
the pedagogical instinct dictating the scope of his later ac- 
tivities. 

This period at the end of the eighteenth century was one 
of sophistication and luxury, of a society interested chiefly 
in its pleasures which it took with an abandon outwardly 
elegant. The somewhat surfeited though ravenous taste 
of the moneyed classes needed the constant stimulation of 
variety or innovation. This led, in England, to a pre- 
ponderantly eclectic character in utilitarian art, the art 
which responds most quickly of all to changes of taste or 
social usage, while in France the superior genius of the de- 
signers and craftsmen forced this eclecticism into moulds 
of their own conception. 

The heritage of many epochs of furniture design which had 
come down to the cabinet-makers of the last half of the eight- 
eenth century was brought by them to a luxuriant flowering. 
The evolution of furniture forms was already accomplished 
with a few exceptions which the usage of the time soon called 
into being. The wide variety of materials already in use left 
little scope to the inventiveness, in this line, of individual 


32 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


workmen. The glossary of decorative motives was completed 
by the introduction of the late Roman detail early in the 
period. The remaining opportunities for the furniture de- 
signer and craftsman lay in his personal method of approach- 
ing and treating his problems of design or in his originality in 
combining his decorative motives and his rich materials. The 
result of this condition of affairs was the conscious creation 
of furniture styles which were differentiated each from the 
other by a certain studied use of a limited number of decora- 
tive motives and design forms combined in characteristic 
ways. 

In the superb designs of the period of Louis XV, the ro- 
caille taste which had been developing throughout the 
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was brought 
to its logical expression. It was a vehicle of perfect flexi- 
bility for the rendition of the subtle, refined, and aristocratic 
taste of the time. Elaborate, often gorgeous, the furniture 
design possesses an intellectual quality which it is sometimes 
difficult for the uninitiated to discover, but its presence defi- 
nitely refutes the charge of superficiality which is often lev- 
elled against the decorative art of the Louis XV period. 

With the classical influence exerted by the archeological 
investigations in Italy and the handsome publications of 
Piranesi, the developed style of Louis XVI is marked by 
colder and less inspired qualities of design though it retains 
the same high standards of craftsmanship in its execution. 
The debacle of the Revolution brought with it the desire for 
simplicity on the part of its protagonists whose taste ac- 
cepted the style of Louis X VI, with which they were in some 
degree familiar, but shorn of much of its more elaborate 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 33 


decoration. The furniture of the period of the Directory, 
strikingly related to that of Phyfe, is of this sort and 
shows a frequent use of woods unpainted and ungilded, 
decorated with low relief carving and characterized by atten- 
uated proportion. Under the Consulate, the same austerity 
of design is retained but acquires a more elaborate appliqué 
of decoration, while with the Empire came the full blare of 
gorgeous decorative treatment and an increasing solidity of 
form based upon architectural formule. 

To trace a parallel course in England we must return to 
Chippendale’s designs, which, supplemented by others of 
less well known men, had given expression to the rococo love 
for the unusual and the exotic, which dominated ‘the com- 
plicated taste of the time. His style at its best and most 
typical was of a very high artistic quality, of imaginative 
and intellectual content, suited to its uses and carried out in 
appropriate material. Both the decoration and structural 
lines were plastic, essentially, but in the latter the feeling for 
the material was seldom violated. 

As the freshness of the style began to wane the tendency 
toward over-elaboration made itself all too obvious. The 
bizarre and eccentric became the rule rather than the ex- 
ception, and the effort degenerated into one of striving to 
produce the novel rather than the fine effect. 

Due partially to this undesirable ingrowing tendency of 
the art itself, partially to the budding romanticism of the 
time, the innovations begun by Robert Adam in the third 
quarter of the eighteenth century met with hearty endorse- 
ment. The discovery and excavation of the ruins of Her- 
culaneum and Pompeii had gripped both the scientific and 


34 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


romantic interests of the cultivated public, so that a contem- 
porary architecture and decorative art referring directly 
back to those late-Roman times held an immense appeal for 
a considerable group. of people. It was upon this basis, 
therefore, that Robert Adam built up the style to which his 
name is attached. 

Although he was an architect, not a cabinet-maker, the 
necessity for suitable furniture in the houses which he de- 
signed—in which the prevailing style of Chippendale seemed 
to him out of place—soon led Adam into the designing of 
furniture and decorative accessories incorporating the mo- 
tives which he had made his own. ‘These included a classic 
symmetry in composition, the preferred use of the straight 
line in vertical structural members, and of geometrical forms, 
curved or polygonal, in plan. The total effect of these gen- 
eral changes was a lightening of the proportions, an interest- 
ing effect gained chiefly by the contrast of complementary 
forms and the employment of consistent scale, in an architec- 
tural sense, throughout the design. This definite scale in 
the furniture was emphasized by the use of much decoration 
of architectural origin. Vertical supports, such as table 
legs, were designed upon the basis of the classic fluted 
column. In carving were employed swags of flowers or 
drapery, acanthus, water and palm leaves, musical instru- 
ments tied with ribbons, and many other delicate details 
whose use was suggested by their former employment in 
architectural decoration. With Adam this type of furniture 
design resolved itself into that of architectural design in the 
small. The points of study were those of mass and pro- 
portion, the placing of decoration and, above all, correctness 





PLATE XIX. CARD TABLE, SHERATON INFLUENCE 
THE CORNER BLOCKS ARE CARVED WITH THE PRINCE OF 
WALES FEATHERS 











INFLUENCE 


SHERATON 


CARD TABLE, 


PLATE XxX. 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 35 


and consistency of scale. The most valid criticism of much 
of the Adam work is levelled against the rather unimagina- 
tive and dry quality which results from this method of de- 
sign creation. 

Adam, as has been said, was not a cabinet-maker, and his 
designs were, perforce, carried out by workmen over whom 
he exercised some control. But at the hands of actual cabi- 
net-makers, the type of furniture design begun by Adam 
achieved its real perfection as an art-craft. The two names 
of Hepplewhite and Sheraton stand out as characterizing 
particularly personal treatments of furniture by trained cabi- 
net-makers following out the impulse newly given by Adam. 
Hepplewhite, like Chippendale in his last manner, had 
turned to the France of Louis XV for the forms which might 
possibly combat the rising tide of Roman detail that was 
following in the wake of Robert Adam. Eventually he suc- 
cumbed and we find him working in the pure Adam style 
although imbuing his work with enough of his own person- 
ality to mark in it a tendency away from Adam’s artificiality 
and toward greater comfort. In its final development, the 
work of Hepplewhite shows the designer and the cabinet- 
maker in him at complete harmony, confessing at the same 
time obligations both to Rome and to France, but fusing 
the two into an English whole under the fire of personal 
enthusiasm for his craft. 

In Sheraton is seen a cabinet-maker by trade and a de- 
signer by profession whose rank is among the foremost. He 
figures not only in these two fields, designing and handi- 
craft, but also as an editor and publisher of designs by other 
men for furniture current in his time. Thus he stands as 


36 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


one of the important educational influences in the art-crafts 
of the end of the eighteenth century, disseminating designs 
and information which came into the hands of practically 
every furniture craftsman to the lasting improvement of 
English cabinet-work. 

Sheraton was not only a collector of other men’s designs, 
but actually inaugurated a distinct style of his own which 
differed in many minute details from that of Hepplewhite. 
In his chairs, he showed genuine originality, although in 
much of his detail is seen a seasoning of the French style of 
the period of Louis XVI. All in all, his designs—for his 
actual handiwork is unknown and unidentified, and it is not 
believed that he ever did any cabinet-work after he came 
to London in 1790—are the very last word in fine cabinet- 
work of the eighteenth century in England, containing the 
essence of all the new ideas which had come into being in 
the last quarter of the century, as well as some of the ten- 
dencies which eventually led to its deterioration. 

Phyfe, in America, was the heir of this age and helped to 
prolong it, in the new land, well into the nineteenth century. 
By the time that he was working entirely on his own re- 
sponsibility, he was able to profit by all the accomplish- 
ments of the last great English cabinet-makers and, seeing 
their work as a whole, he could pick and choose those treat- 
ments which his native good taste and feeling for his craft 
told him were legitimate and appropriate for his use. At 
the same time the changing style in France was eventuating 
in the chaste simplicity of the Directory and the early 
Consulate, whose influences were felt very promptly in 
New York. 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 37 


Born in 1768 at Loch Fannich, thirty miles from Inver- 
ness, Scotland, Duncan Phyfe came with his parents and 
their other children to America in 1783 or 1784. On the 
long voyage from Scotland two of the children of the family 
died, one of them his younger sister. The family settled 
in Albany, where the boy, Duncan, then sixteen years of 
age, worked at the cabinet-maker’s trade into which it is 
probable that he had been inducted before he left home. 
After a time he went into business for himself in Albany, 
where it is said that he did considerable work before leaving 
that city. Sometime early in the 1790’s he came to 
New York, lured, like many another ambitious youth, by 
the fame of the city as a growing metropolis which recently 
for a short time had been the capital of the country. Lo- 
cating first in Broad Street, in the midst of a district full of 
cabinet-makers, he made several changes of abode and 
work, settling finally in 1795 in Partition Street, not far 
from the “Common.” Here he stayed for the rest of his 
days, seeing the town grow far to the north and pass 
through many changes. 

_ At first it was a hard struggle to get sufficient work, but 
a fortunate connection was made with certain members of 
the family of John Jacob Astor, whose wealth was already 
very great, and this led to more and more increased business 
among the people of means in the city. Even before 1800 it 
is probable that Phyfe’s work was considered among the 
best obtainable in New York, for in at least one case we 
know of a man of wealth, who, marrying in 1797, had all of 
the furniture for his new home made by Phyfe. 

The increasing prosperity of Phyfe coincided with that of 


38 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


the city. Many families, whose wealth was rapidly mount- 
ing up, were building new brick or marble houses which had 
to be furnished in the prevailing taste. Many of them 
found the furniture from Phyfe’s workshop not only the 
finest from the point of view of workmanship and design, 
but best adapted to the character and scale of their interior 
architecture. 

His reputation, too, was spreading and orders came to 
him from other cities, such as Philadelphia and Albany, 
while in the adjacent country in New Jersey and the Hudson 
valley handsome country seats were springing up and in 
many of these his handiwork found a place. To his shop 
one could go not only for the exquisite mahogany draw- 
ing-room or dining-room suites, but, for the accommodation 
of his clients, he would furnish kitchen furniture such as iron- 
ing boards, clothes horses, pastry boards, and servants’ beds. 
He also did careful repairing of furniture. This custom 
was usual among the cabinet-makers of the eighteenth 
century in England who undertook to furnish a house from 
cellar to garret with appropriate articles. 

That he very soon found business growing beyond his 
expectation is proved by the increase in his property. At 
first with only the one house at No. 35, in 1807 he acquired 
No. 34 next door, and in 1811, No. 33 Partition Street. The 
original house was still his dwelling with the salesrooms at 
No. 34 and the workshop and warehouse at No. 33, these 
buildings being all on the same side of the street. 

Shortly after Robert Fulton’s death, in 1815, measures 
were taken to open through a street from the East River to 
the North River to be called by hisname. About this time 


GQONGOATANI NOLVYAHS ‘ATAVL AWVD ‘IXX ULVI1d 





aE 






oe 
ee 





PLATE XXII. PEMBROKE TABLE, SHERATON 
INFLUENCE 


QAT&HVL-ONINIG NOISNALXA AVAT-dOud “IIIXX ALVId 











PLATE XXIV. SEWING STAND, SHERATON 
INFLUENCE 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 39 


Phyfe acquired the house directly across from his sales- 
shop, so that when, in 1816-1817, Partition and Fair streets, 
the same thoroughfare running east and west of Broadway, 
were rechristened Fulton Street, and the houses renum- 
bered, Phyfe’s addresses were Nos. 168, 170, and 172 with his 
house at No. 169 opposite. The frontispiece to this volume 
is from a contemporary view in water colour of the warehouse, 
workshop, and salesroom taken from the dwelling house. 
No. 172, originally the dwelling, brick with marble trimming, 
wrought-iron railing, and slate roof, is a typical house of 
the time, and was now used for warehouse purposes. The 
shop, with its show-windows and delicate architectural 
detail, is similar in style to many a design seen in the con- 
temporary architectural books. In the original drawing the 
street number appears distinctly over its doorway, while 
modest signs over the show-windows bear the legend, 
“Duncan Phyfe, Cabinet-maker.”’ The third building with 
its large windows was the workshop, though the dignity of 
its architecture would suggest a much more important 
usage. The old softly coloured drawing is a very charming 
example of architectural rendering of the period. 

Mrs. Frances Trollope, visiting New York in 1829 or 
1830, saw the houses practically as they were built and fur- 
nished between 1800 and 1825. She tells us that there were 
many extremely handsome dwellings on Broadway and in 
other parts of the town. According to her description, 
the drawing rooms were furnished with consummate taste, 
the floors heavily carpeted, the tables decorated with fine 
bits of porcelain and objets d’art, the walls hung with paint- 
ings. Even she, who viewed the United States through 


40 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


hostile eyes, was forced to admit the great beauty of the 
town and the taste of its inhabitants. More interesting 
still is her statement that French fashions absolutely pre- 
vailed, and that in walking down Broadway she could 
scarcely believe that she was not in a French town, as she 
noted the costumes of men and women and the gaiety of 
the shops. With this description in mind, we are not 
surprised to find the artistic influences of France equally 
conspicuous in the decorative art of the city. This un- 
adulterated admiration of New York is of decided contrast 
to Mrs. Trollope’s comment upon other places which she 
visited. The publication of her book caused, in the United 
States, such a furore of virtuous anger on the part of 
the Americans that international relations were actually 
strained. Her cold criticism of the country was scathing, 
and New York is almost the only city where she, a born 
cosmopolitan, seems to have felt enough at ease to have 
allowed her appreciation full rein. She does object to the 
omnibuses and their unmannerly occupants, but aside from 
these, the people and their homes seemed to her delightful. 

Fulton Street by 1817 had become one of the main cross- 
town arteries of the city’s traffic. At its western end were 
the landing stages of ferries to New Jersey and steamboats 
to Albany, at its eastern end the ferry to Brooklyn. The 
commercial advantage of such a location is obvious. Only 
one block from Broadway with its fashionable shops and 
smart dwellings, it was but a step from No. 170 Fulton 
Street to Paff’s antiquity shop, where bric-a-brac or paint- 
ings could be chosen to combine with the rich mahogany 
of the furniture, or Vanderlyn’s gallery visited to make 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 41 


arrangements for a portrait. Here, then, it was that Phyfe 
lived and worked, within a stone’s throw of St. Paul’s and 
almost within sight of the new City Hall, while before his 
eyes passed the varied pageant of the city’s life, its parades, 
its fires and pestilences, its physical changes and growth. 

The fashions of the day were too strong to be combated, 
and as the years went by Phyfe found it necessary to drift 
further and further away from the original distinction of 
style which had characterized his work. His earliest pieces, 
derived almost wholly from Hepplewhite and Sheraton, 
are worthy of a place beside any of their European contem- 
poraries. The severe simplicity which was characteristic 
of much of it was not a sudden break from the simple but 
dignified furniture, Chippendale in origin, which was 
popular in the post-Revolutionary years of the eighteenth 
century. The influence of France, very strong in New 
York, and noticeable in costumes as well, led him early to 
adopt many motives of Directoire and Consulate origin, 
but he combined them skillfully with those of his earliest 
practice, still keeping the delicate scale and fine finish of 
the latter. As this French influence increased, the heavier 
forms of the French Empire came into vogue, and in response 
to the demands of his clients, by this time numerous, Phyfe 
was forced to enter into a style of work which was much 
inferior to that of his earlier days. Even this heavier work, 
with its use of gilt metal, is well made from a craftsman’s 
point of view and possesses a certain character in spite of 
its over-solidity. The still further change which came 
with the dark ages of black walnut led him into the laby- 
rinth of bad taste from which there was no egress. 


42 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


In 1837 the firm name was changed to Duncan Phyfe 
and Sons, in 1840 to Duncan Phyfe and Son, and in 1847 
he sold out and retired, to live on at his Fulton Street home 
until his death in 1854. Thus his life bridged the years 
between the last fine period of artistic effort and the col- 
lapse of taste which marked the nineteenth century, with 
all the political, social, and economic changes which this ar- 
tistic transition signifies. 

Although certainly holding an important position in the 
commercial life of his time, Phyfe, due to his retiring dis- 
position, never took a prominent part in activities other 
than those connected with him in the most personal way. 
He seems to have led a quiet, God-fearing life, wholly 
occupied by his work and his family. All the recognition 
that he received, expressed in generous measure by his 
patrons, came to him by reason of his artistic and technical 
excellence. The only recorded official notice of his position 
as the leading cabinet-maker of his time is his employment 
in connection with the Erie Canal Celebration. In two 
commissions, he was called upon to undertake work which 
promised to be preserved among the memorials of that 
historic occasion. He made the handsome casket in which 
were contained the glass bottles, filled with water from 
Lake Erie, which were sent to Lafayette as a souvenir of 
this great event in the commercial history of New York. 
For the same occasion he made the handsome little cases 
in which the gold and silver medals, which were struck in 
commemoration, were enclosed and sent to the distinguished 
invited guests of the city and to the President and living 
ex-Presidents of the United States. ° 





SEWING STAND. THE SILK BAG 


. 


PLATE XXV 


IS MISSING 





PLATE XXVI. SEWING STAND. THE SILK BAG 
IS MISSING 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 43 


The work of Phyfe, judged by the standards applicable 
to distinguished utilitarian art of all times, may be divided 
into four groups. The first and second of these, which 
include the work showing Hepplewhite and Sheraton in- 
fluence and that in which the Sheraton and Directoire in- 
fluences join, we may consider as a legitimate part of the 
history of furniture design. The second and third groups 
of the later American Empire furniture and of the black 
walnut “‘ Butcher”’ furniture need not be considered as con- 
tributions of any value. It is with the first two groups 
only that we shall deal, dating as they do from the end of 
the eighteenth through the first quarter of the nineteenth 
century, and it is these which shall be considered in detail 
as their quality warrants. 

By the time that Phyfe had become permanently es- 
tablished in New York as a cabinet-maker, all of the best 
books of furniture designs had found their way to the 
United States. Chippendale’s ‘Director’ must have been 
well known to him from his earliest days, if only as a 
curiosity of a superseded taste. At the time when he was first 
beginning work in New York, the Hepplewhite “Guide” 
and the Sheraton “Drawing Book” were being issued and 
must soon have appeared in the city. Certain of his work 
which we know was done in 1797 is completely Sheraton 
and most finished both in design and execution, while many 
of his details and methods of treatment are so closely allied 
to Hepplewhite that it seems reasonable to suppose that his 
very earliest work was based upon Hepplewhite models. 

In discussing the furniture masterpieces of Duncan 
Phyfe it is not meant to suggest that every piece of what 


44 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


we call Phyfe furniture was made by his own hands. We 
are told that in his most successful latter years he employed 
more than a hundred journeyman cabinet-makers, turners. 
and carvers, and at this time it 1s highly probable that he 
did none of the actual work himself. But none the less, 
his was the directing mind, his were the designs, and his 
very close supervision stamped every piece with the re- 
fining mark of his criticism. Of the earliest work, much 
must actually have been made by him, and to some extent 
this may account for its close approach to perfection in its 
types, and the same, no doubt, is true of much of that work 
turned out before 1825. 

The prices paid for Phyfe’s work indicate that he was in 
a position to charge adequately for his furniture. These 
well-to-do people who were his patrons, recognizing the 
high quality of every piece which came from his shop, were 
willing to pay in full the fair price for his talents and labour. 
A bill rendered by Phyfe for furniture delivered to Charles 
N. Bancker, Esq., Philadelphia, may be quoted in full: 


1816 
Jany 4 Mr. Bancker 
to D. Phyfe dr. 
To 12 Mahogany chairs @ $22 . . .°. . . ) eeeneoenne 
ofa 6 ee eae Re See 122.00 
Piere table ME ENRPEM rr 
Pair card tables  . 2)... 
Packing .. 2.00. 3 ee 
$800 .00 
Discount 3 pret forcash . . . 24.00 
$756 .00* 


*It was well for Phyfe that Mr. Bancker did not pay his first bill promptly, since the 
mistake in subtraction would have cost the cabinet-maker twenty dollars. 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 45 











2nd 

1816 
Jany 4 To12 Mahogany chairs ..... . . . $264.00 
ree ese ee i. kw «(192.00 
PMteta Cee a Ge el oe «6265.00 
** Pair card tables Peewee eee a ee A | 180.00 
ME Eee ae ee RS kw 44.00 
BRBOEIOOL SUGOLS ora ale RS se 30.00 
ACN Ee Ca As AS ete a 2.00 
ce 4 $857.00 
MP OMe Sr OM re Or gy 19.00 
$876 .00 
ME Ete SE A ey ey 15.00 
$861.00 


The value of the dollar of about this time was approxi- 
mately the same as in our currency to-day, but the average 
fortune of the well-to-do man of those days would be a very 
small part of that of a man in the same position to-day. 
Therefore a sum of almost a thousand dollars was a fair 
amount to pay for enough furniture to furnish partially only 
two rooms, and the ‘‘Piere’’ table costing two hundred and 
sixty-five dollars must have been an imposing thing. 

There is another little fragment preserved with this 
bill, although not a part of it. It shows two rough pencil 
sketches of chairs. One of them has a lyre back with dog 
feet and the top rail carved with cornucopize—a combina- 
tion of motives unrepresented in any of the examples yet 
discovered. The second has the back made up of crossed 
curves, the top rail carved with leaves and the front legs 
in the Empire form of crossed reverse curves. The prices 
accompanying the first chair are as follows: cane bottoms, 


46 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


$22, cushions $3, stuffed $23; for the second chair: cane 
bottoms $19, cushions extra $3, stuffed bottoms $21. 

These show that our cabinet-maker had a regular scale 
of charges for each item which it is interesting to compare 
with those of an earlier day. In “The Journeyman Cabinet 
and Chairmakers’ (New York) Book of Prices,”’ published 
in 1796, are found itemized charges for every tiny detail of 
construction. On page 78 there are given prices for three 
types of chairs—an urn back, a vase back stay rail chair, 
and a square back chair. These approximate more closely 
in description than any others in the book’ to the 
types of chairs made by Phyfe. The average price for the 
labour on such a chair as one of Phyfe’s simpler, carved slat 
sort would have been about fifteen shillings without any 
mention of carving on legs, slat, or upper back rail, and also 
exclusive of the cost of material. 

With the question of Phyfe’s style—its derivations from 
European sources and the amount of his own original con- 
tribution—it is better to deal in connection with the actual 
examples of his work, and this will be done in later chapters. 
The outstanding general consideration of his work as a 
whole is the fact that he, as the artistic heir of the great 
English cabinet-makers of the eighteenth century, profited 
by all the results of their study and experience, appropriated 
from them—as they in their turn had taken from their 
predecessors and contemporaries—what methods and mo- 
tives of construction and decoration appealed to him, and 
with this fund of the traditional elements of his art he 
created a style of his own, full of the spirit of his time, 
influenced under intelligent and loving control by con- 








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bee 
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Sic ) 


PLATE XXVII. CONSOLE TABLE, URN PEDESTAL 


pease " SRR SORE RRS 





PLATE OX XV URI a Or, CANDLESTAND 





PLATE XXIX. DROP-LEAF TABLE, URN PEDESTAL 











NG STAND 


EWING AND WRITI 


S 


PLATE XXX 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 47 


temporary taste and usage. His achievement lies in thus 
carrying on the ancient tradition a step further than it had 
seemed destined to go, and in harmonizing it with the 
changing taste of early nineteenth-century New York. 

By the same token, his importance to us to-day lies in the 
fact that in him came to an end this fine tradition which 
disappeared when the esthetic interests of the civilized world 
suffered eclipse by the industrial revolution of the nineteenth 
century. For a forward movement in the art of cabinet- 
making, this period would seem to be the point of departure. 
Just as the architecture of the early republic marked the 
end of a great tradition to which it is not impossible to re- 
turn, so this early republican furniture of Phyfe, which 
marked the end of a parallel tradition in decorative or 
utilitarian art, may well form a basis for further develop- 
ment, not by unimaginative reproduction, but by observing 
his method of study and work which is full of integrity and 
the finest ideals of the art and craft of furniture-making, 
based upon the traditions which had come down to him as 
the heir of the great cabinet-makers of the end of the eight- 
eenth century. 








PN) WE ee 
ZAG Nata 








ia RS 


III 


THE DISTINCTIVE QUALITY OF 
DUNCAN PHYFE 


THE distinctive quality of Duncan Phyfe, like that of the 
great eighteenth-century cabinet-makers, results from the 
combination of a number of elements which are treated in 
ways characteristic of his methods of design and execution. 
To arrive at a full appreciation of his work it is necessary 
to analyze the elements of his style, determining just what 
are their origins and how his use of them records his personal 
treatment in which his affection for his work and the con- 
sistency of his taste were the ultimate cohesives. Such an 
analysis holds also the suggestion of a way in which modern 
cabinet-makers and designers, basing their work upon tradi- 
tional motives, of which Phyfe appropriated but a com- 
paratively small number, may develop equally personal styles 
of their own. 

Phyfe, for several reasons, is the only early American 
cabinet-maker to whom may be definitely attributed a large 
group of pieces. To Savery of Philadelphia and to Goddard 
in Rhode Island, the attribution of a number of pieces is 


made upon the basis of similarity to one or two authentically 
48 


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unseat oe 





DETAILS OF SOFA ARMS AND LEGS, CARVED PANELS FROM SOFAS AND FROM CHAIR-BACKS 





FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 49 


documented examples of their work. To Phyfe, however, 
a very large number of documented articles of furniture are 
ascribed, and such attribution is strengthened by a very 
marked consistency of important characteristics. 

The elements of Phyfe’s style fall into two groups. The 
first of these is the furniture design as a whole, its proportion 
and line. Both of these are strikingly characteristic. The 
second element is that of the decoration which he employed, 
a characteristic second in importance only to the general 
design as a guide for the amateur to identify Phyfe furniture. 
Less important are the materials used and the furniture 
forms themselves. A review of these elements will show 
that there is a consistent feeling for certain proportional 
relations and certain combinations of line; that the decora- 
tive elements limited by taste are few in number but com- 
bined in many ways; that the furniture forms do not include 
every piece of furniture but are restricted to those which 
experience had shown could best be treated in the personal 
style which Phyfe was developing. The materials, too, 
which he used are carefully chosen for certain qualities of 
colour or texture which are maintained at the same high 
standard in most of his early work. 

The analysis of his proportion is difficult. Its general 
effect is that of an exquisite balance between vertical and 
horizontal structural members. In his design one sees a 
very strong sense of structural integrity and economy in 
construction. In legs of tables, chairs, and sofas, the sup- 
porting effect is frequently emphasized by reeding or carving 
which carries the eye in the proper supporting directions 
up and down. These vertical supports are reduced to the 


50 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


smallest dimensions commensurate with complete stability, 
showing that economy of material which is indicative of the 
most developed forms of structural art. The horizontal 
elements, heavier, of necessity, than the vertical, are pro- 
portioned to the whole height of the piece in much the same 
manner as are the entablatures of the classic orders of archi- 
tecture. Thus in a small card or console table the skirting 
is shallow, its lightness emphasized by veneered borders or 
tiny bead moulding at the bottom, its whole depth happily 
proportioned to the total height of the piece. In a library 
or dressing table—two variations of the same problem— 
where it is necessary for utilitarian reasons to introduce one 
or more drawers which require a deepening of the skirt, the 
supports are either made heavier, proportionately, or are 
coupled at the ends to suggest greater strength. 

The proportions which Phyfe found pleasing in his earlier 
pieces are those suggested by the designs of Adam and 
carried on by Hepplewhite, Sheraton, and the French cabi- 
net-makers of the Directory and the Consulate. Even 
more than do these, Phyfe observes integrity of structure 
based upon architectural lines, and his furniture shows 
fewer lapses from just proportional relations than that of 
his famous predecessors while confessing In many cases an 
increased lightness and refinement. 

The structural curves which Phyfe employed show his 
real freedom in design. They are all fine, firm, freehand 
curves, which, while in many cases giving the effect of 
lightness, at the same time suggest adequate and solid 
support. His reverse curves, which occur both in chair 
and table legs, have as convincing a strength as any of the 


IECES 


mplete Stability, 
indicative of the 
The horizonta] 
ertical, are pro- 
1 much the same 
°c orders of archi- 
able the skirting 
‘eered borders or 
le depth happily 
ce. In a library 
same problem— 
to introduce one 
of the skirt, the 
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1gth. 
ing in his earlier 
s of Adam and 
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TYPICAL LY RES eAN.D 





QATAVL-ONINIG “‘IXXX AULVITd 

















SKIRTING 


CARD TABLE WITHOUT 


PLATE AX Oh 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 51 


fine cabriole legs of the Chippendale period. The hori- 
zontal curves of table tops, chair seats, sofa seats and arms 
are often so slight as to escape detection, but they do add 
much to the flowing grace of the whole composition. One 
detail which is much remarked is the very subtle curve 
found on the longer centre leaf-portions of the so-called 
“clover-leaf’’ table top. (Plates XX and XXII.) Here 
it is found, by laying a straight edge along the edge of the 
table, that the long line, which appears to be straight, is in 
reality a gentle continuous curve. This is a feature not noted 
in any other American cabinet-maker’s work of the period 
and may be taken as a Phyfe characteristic. None of his 
curves would seem to be geometrical. All appear to be free- 
hand lines based upon geometrical ones, but not drawn me- 
chanically. The difference between these two sorts of curve 
is that which distinguishes the curve of a bent steel rod from 
a curve of lead. We search in vain the “Guide” of Hepple- 
white and the “Drawing Book”’ of Sheraton for a suggestion 
of the characteristic line which is found in practically every 
chair back of Phyfe’s best periods. In them the line of the 
back posts and the back legs does not form the same con- 
tinuous, unbroken curve. For this treatment we turn to 
France, and in the chairs executed during the Directory and 
early Consulate we have not only this treatment of the back 
posts and legs but also the methods suggested for many 
details of decoration. Among the chairs executed by Jacob 
Fréres, 78 rue Meslée, Paris, between 1797 and 1803, are 
several which contain the germ both of Phyfe’s chair design 
and of his decorative methods. Although it is unlikely 
that Phyfe actually ever saw a Jacob chair (though some of 


52 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


this furniture may well have been brought to New York) he 
certainly shared with them the models and published de- 
signs from which each developed his style. 

That Phyfe correctly interpreted the artistic spirit of his 
time is shown by this handling of proportion and line. The 
whole artistic expression of the age tended toward delicacy, 
refinement, and attenuation. Not only in the proportions 
of the furniture, but in those of the architecture of the day 
as well, the tall, slim, vertical element was employed. The 
classic orders were attenuated, the columns stretched out, 
the entablatures lightened. Even in women’s dress this 
tendency is seen—the long, high-waisted skirt surmounted 
by a tiny bodice. This attenuation was indeed a response 
to some unspoken demand of the time, one of those details 
which only the psychology of taste may explain, if it can. 

The decorative methods and motives of Phyfe’s design 
form the second important element by which his work is 
distinguished. The methods of decoration include carving, 
turning, veneering, reeding, and inlay. There is, too, a 
very occasional use of brass in his best work, although this 
is much more characteristic of his later periods. The care- 
fully chosen woods which he used, either in solid planks or 
in veneers, were decorative elements in themselves. 

Carving is the most intrinsically fine decorative method 
found in this, as in every other, furniture. The treatment 
of the various motives is characteristic and is quite consis- 
tent in the different places where it occurs. It is thus a good 
guide, and for this reason we shall consider all of the carved 
decoration which is found on Phyfe’s furniture of his good 
periods. 


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OF DUNCAN PHYFE 53 


While there is no order of precedence in the consideration 
of these carved decorative motives, it is best to examine 
first that decoration which is applied to the supporting struc- 
tural members such as chair, table, and sofa legs, and ped- 
estals of stands and tables. These may best be arranged in 
the form of a descriptive list. 

Acantuus. The most generally used decorative detail 
in Phyfe work. Found on the upper side of curved legs of 
pedestal tables, the urn-shaped members of turned pedestals 
and bed-posts, the fronts of chair legs, the column and post 
supports of tables, the outer edges of the legs of benches, 
and in one case on the tall legs of a console table. It is also 
used on the lyres of pedestal tables and chair backs, tables, 
sofas, and piano trestles. The acanthus is combined in all 
of these members with various other details. The most 
usual combination shows delicate reeding appearing from 
under the acanthus leaf and completing the decoration of 
the member. In the round posts and urns the vertical 
acanthus leaves completely surround the circumference 
and are superimposed over a plain leaf. The leaf seldom 
occurs in panels but usually projects beyond the main sur- 
face of the wood. The carver’s technique employed by 
Phyfe is consistent. The leaf differs from the acanthus 
employed in classical decoration, which forms the basis of 
the details shown in the eighteenth-century design books. 
Phyfe’s acanthus is simplified by the wood-carver’s tech- 
nique into a series of rounded grooves and ridges. The de- 
pression seems to have been made with one curved carving 
tool. This is flanked by two very narrow and shallow de- 
pressions from which the raised ridge rounds up. The 


54 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


method is not very different from that in the nulling found 
in Chippendale work. A raised tapering ridge runs up 
the whole centre of the leaf, simulating the central vein of 
the natural form. 

This acanthus of Phyfe is very different from that found 
in design books, on Adam furniture or on that of the French 
earlier eighteenth-century furniture, which are all more 
closely related to the acanthus of classic architectural deri- 
vation. It partakes much more of the Directoire feeling 
which was no doubt affected by the flatness of the popular 
water-leaf ornament of Egyptian and Greek suggestion. 
The drawings in Plates B, C, and D show this typical leaf 
decoration. 

Doa’s Foor. This occurs, so far as we know, only on 
the front legs of chairs on benches and on tables. It was not 
used very frequently. In this motive the dog’s foot is real- 
istically modelled and the hair on the leg is suggested by small, 
irregular, curved grooves. This motive always finishes the 
leg at the bottom but runs into some more conventional 
finish at the top. In one console table, the upper three 
fifths of the legs are carved with acanthus. In the legs of 
the lyre-back chair it joins into a rectangular portion the 
face of which is treated with a narrow panel. The signi- 
ficant detail in the modelling of the foot is that the two out- 
side toes are much subordinated to and drawn back from 
the two middle ones. (Plate D, Fig. 7.) 

WateR Lear. This delicate ornament decorates the 
tiny urn-shaped member at the base of some of the earlier 
chair backs or below the small reeded baluster of sofa arms. 
(Plate A, Fig. 3.) 








PLATE XXXIIT: SEWING AND WRITING STAND . 





PLATE XXXIV. DROP-LEAF TABLE 








PLATE XXXV. CARD TABLE, URN PEDESTAL 








PLATE XXXVI. CARD TABLE WITH FLUTED DRUM 








OF DUNCAN PHYFE 55 


LeaF AND Dart. A simplified form of this occurs on the 
smaller mouldings of sofa arms and bed-posts. (Plate 
rigs 1,-2,.3.) 

PauM Lear. An adaptation of the Egyptian palm-leafed, 
bell-shaped capital is the form found on the top of practically 
all the bed-posts. The leaves, slightly carved, are merely 
suggested, with little or no modelling. (Plate C, Figs. 1-4.) 

Lion’s Foot. The fine brass feet, in the form of lions’ 
paws, which finish most of the table legs, were varied some- 
times by carved wood lions’ feet, which cannot be considered 
a wholly successful substitution. In later work, the lion’s 
foot and leg are used. (Plates XXX, and D, Fig. 9.) 

Lion’s Foot anp Eacuer’s Wina. In Plate XVI is seen 
a sofa whose legs are composed of the lion’s foot combined 
with the eagle’s wing. It was a feature frequently found in 
later American Empire furniture, but never with such 
pleasing effect as in the sofa illustrated, where all the other 
decoration is restricted to reeding and panelling, which 
enhances the carving of the legs. 

Rosettes. Sometimes rectangular, or octagonal, some- 
times circular, the rosettes are conventionalized forms which 
require no comment. They occur at the crossing of the 
reeded members of chair backs, on the corner blocks of 
tables, and on lyres. (Plates B, Fig. 6, and D, Fig. 3.) 

Ropr. The rope motive is rarely used. It does occur 
between mouldings on the upper side of curved table legs 
and on the outside edges of lyres which have the acanthus 
on their faces. It is used also on torus mouldings of the 
bases of table posts. (Plates B, Fig. 6, and D, Fig. 8.) 

Fiutinc. The fluting is well placed when it is employed 


56 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


on the edges of the platforms of pedestal tables, the backs 
of sofas, or the cylindrical drums of turned table pedestals 
or bed-posts. (Plates A, Fig. 3, and XL.) 

WuHor.ep Fiutine. This detail occurs on the bulbous 
member near the base of certain table supports. The flutes 
are not so sharp as when straight and parallel and the effect 
is more nearly that of grooving. (Plates XLITI, and D, Fig. 5.) 

Lion Mask. Carved in wood, the lion mask is found — 
on table bases, at the crossing of the reversed curves of 
Empire sofas, and at the corners of one high-post bedstead. 
In brass it is used in the same position on chairs and sofas, 
but these brasses were, of course, not made by Phyfe and 
were probably imported. (Plates XVII and LV.) 

This completes the list of carved decoration on the sup- 
porting members of the furniture of the good periods. 
Other carving occurs in panels which are framed either by 
one or two delicate reed mouldings or by narrow flat band- 
ing. The carved panels fall into two groups: the larger 
ones, which are found on chair and sofa backs; and the 
smaller ones, which decorate table skirtings. These panel 
designs may be studied in the plates of details. 

CornucoPi2. Two crossed cornucopie, tied by a bow- 
knot of ribbon. From their mouths issue heads of wheat, 
laurel leaves, and fruit. The cornucopie are carved with a 
spiral banding. (Plates XVII and A, Fig. 4.) 

LAUREL. Crossed branches of laurel made into a sym- 
metrical design. (Plates XVII and A, Fig. 8.) 

Oak Leaves. A slightly conventionalized branch of 
oak leaves fills the top panel of one of the chairs. (Plates 
IV and A, Fig. 2.) 


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TABLE LEGS AND SUPPORTS), AND A PANEL FROM eAgeiA RD LER 





OF DUNCAN PHYFE 57 


DrapPeryY Swaacs. A double swag of drapery is caught 
up in the centre by a bow-knot of ribbon and a cord from 
which two tassels depend. The ends of the drapery are 
fastened at points and fallin folds. The edge of the drapery 
has a delicate indication of fringe. (Plates XII and A, 
Fig. 5.) 

Wueat Ears. A group of ten wheat ears and leaves, 
crossing in the centre, symmetrically arranged and tied by 
a bow-knot of ribbon whose ends follow the symmetrical 
arrangement of the ears. (Plates XII and A, Fig. 6.) 

THUNDERBOLTS. Five crossed “‘thunderbolts,” arranged 
symmetrically and tied by a bow-knot of ribbon. (Plate 
XIV and A, Fig. 7.) | 

TRUMPETS. ‘Two small crossed horns or trumpets tied 
with a bow-knot of ribbon are found in a panel on one piano 
base. 

More limited in subject are the small panels which are 
found on table skirtings. 

DRAPERY Swacs. Reduced adaptations of the double 
drapery swags of the larger panels occur as a central me- 
dallion on the skirt of card tables. Here the whole is com- 
pressed into short space, the bow-knot catches the fringed 
drapery in the centre, and one or two cords and tassels 
depend from it. (Plate XLV.) 

Prince OF Wates Feratruers. The three feathers, 
heraldic device of the Prince of Wales, fill the small rec- 
tangular panels above the reeded legs of a card table. Only 
one example of this usage by Phyfe is known. (Plate 
XIX.) 

Lear Panets. In one example, a dining-table (Plates 


58 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


XXXIX and D, Fig. 3), a rectangular unmoulded panel on 
the base is filled by four acanthus leaves and four plain 
leaves radiating from acentre. (Plate XX XIX.) A similar 
design, reduced, occurs on the base of the drop-leaf table. 
(Plate XL.) 

There are certain other motives in which carving shares 
with veneering, turning, or cut-out design in the total dec- 
orative effect. 3 

Tue Lyre. The lyre is one of Phyfe’s most successful 
motives. It is employed not only in chair backs—ajouré, to 
use a French expression—but also in sofa arms, in table 
supports, and as the supports of dressing glasses. For 
chair backs and sofa arms, the woodwork is very delicate 
and the carving of acanthus very subtly and plastically 
modelled. The strings, either four or five in number, are 
of brass or whalebone. The key which runs through the 
top is of ebony. In the crossed lyres of pedestal tables the 
proportions are a trifle heavier, while as end supports of 
library tables the thickness of the wood lyre frame is mate- 
rially increased. For variations of the typical lyres see 
Plate B of the details. 

Cuair Suats. The best chair slats are those in which 
an uncarved medallion, oval, rectangular, or eight-sided, 
is supported on each side by carved scrolls or groups of 
leaves. (Plate B.) In some of these the little medallion 
is plain, but veneered with finely grained wood. In others 
it is a panel surrounded by a narrow, flat border. 7 

REEDED Cross-BARS. Chairs showing considerable 
Sheraton influence are those whose backs are filled by 
delicately reeded cross-bars. Straight diagonal cross-bars 


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A PIANO TRESTLE AND VARIOUS DESIGNS OF TABLE POSTS AND URN-SHAPED SUPPORTS 





















PLATE XXXVII. SIDE TABLE, FOUR-POST PEDESTAL 





PLATE XXXVIII. DROP-LEAF) TA 
FOUR-POST PEDESTAL 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 59 


are of two types, single-cross and double-cross. A small 
carved rosette marks the point where the bars meet. There 
is also a type with curved cross-bars which meet at a carved 
medallion. The reeding, too, differs and is made up 
either of three reeds close together, or of two reeds—really 
half-round fillets—separated by a flat channel. (Plates I 
and IT.) 

The Turning is certainly the best of its kind. The pro- 
files for the turning are as well designed within their limi- 
tations as the carving itself and show free adaptations of 
the usual forms of base mouldings, necking, fillets, urns, 
and balusters. The best bits of turning per se are the 
typical Phyfe finish at the bottoms of the straight reeded legs. 
figs wand A, Figs 1, 3; and D, Fig 1.) On 
many of these legs the reeding ends some distance from the 
floor and the turned portion below is very delicately swelled 
out, then contracted. Here again the Hepplewhite and 
Sheraton books help us less than does an examination of the 
work of Jacob Fréres. A few of the reeded legs show an 
entasis, although most of them taper gently on a straight 
line. The difficulty of doing fine free turning is best proved 
by a search for good modern turning, a search invariably 
rewarded. 

There are also delicate little turned and moulded buttons, 
which are glued over the ends of the tenons of chair backs 
and rails, where they come through the posts and legs, also 
on sofa arms and on lyres. 

ReEeEpDING, which partakes more of the qualities of turning 
and moulding than it does of carving, is found on almost 
every piece of Phyfe furniture. Its use contributes largely 


60 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


in emphasizing the slenderness of vertical elements and the 
delicacy of horizontal. Not only on wood but on marble 
table-tops do we find this reeding. 

VENEERING. Certain uses of veneered decoration may be 
considered as typical earmarks of Phyfe work. On the rec- 
tangular corner blocks which occur on many drop-leaf tables 
(Plates XX and XXI), the surface is veneered by a small 
decorative treatment. In some cases it is simply a rec- 
tangle of brilliantly grained wood surrounded by a narrow 
border of the wood contrasting in tone or in the direction 
of the grain. This rectangle is varied occasionally in two 
ways. In one, the upper edge of the rectangle breaks out 
into a semicircle, giving what we call the arched rectangle. 
(Plate LII.) In other cases the corners of the rectangle 
are cut off by quarter circles struck with the corner of the 
rectangle as the centre of the are. (Plate XXI.) This 
beautiful treatment, so unobtrusive as to escape notice 
except upon close examination, is an example of how far the 
love of his work carried Phyfe in the perfection of craftsman- 
ship. Only a craftsman whose affection for his work far ex- 
ceeded any desire for gain or showiness could have spent the 
time and energy on a detail so comparatively insignificant. 

These, then, were the design and decorative motives which 
were comprised in Phyfe’s working glossary. In using them 
he freely changed their size and scale to adapt them cor- 
rectly to the problems in hand. His combination of forms, 
his choice of decorative method, and his placing of ornament 
are all very carefully studied to produce the distinctive 
quality which appealed to his taste, influenced as it was by the 
taste of histime. His fondness for beautifully grained woods 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 61 


led him to emphasize this quality of his material by the 
treatment of veneer and by the reservation of many broad, 
uncarved surfaces juxtaposed to relief ornaments in panels. 
His carving, much of it plastic in execution, is always low 
in relief and avoids any disturbance of the general lines. 

As much as any other factor, it is the use of certain dec- 
orative forms which gives to all the furniture of Phyfe’s best 
period its unusual consistency. His style is a transitional 
one, judged by most of his work, and seldom do we find such 
complete harmony in the combination of elements which 
make up a style in which a changing taste is recorded. The 
explanation of this harmony lies entirely in the discrimi- 
nation which chose so carefully from various styles their 
most desirable motives and which changed and adapted 
these motives to use with a feeling for scale, for placing 
of ornament, and for structural unity unusual in cabinet- 
makers of any period, and particularly so in a period 
when all the tendencies were pulling away from the cultiva- 
tion of a discriminating taste. 





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IV 
THE FURNITURE 


CHAIRS AND BENCHES 


CHAIR-MAKING in the eighteenth and early nineteenth 
centuries was a specialized branch of craftsmanship, dis- 
tinguished from that of cabinet-making. There were 
journeyman chair-makers just as there were journeyman 
cabinet-makers who formed the fluid mass of employed la- 
bour upon which the established firms depended. Many of 
the contemporary newspapers contain advertisements of 
“fancy”? chair-makers who supplied only chairs to their 
patrons. 

Phyfe was both a chair-maker and a cabinet-maker, 
athough his preference seems to have been for the lighter 
forms of furniture more closely related in construction to 
chair-making than they were to heavier cabinet-making. 
His chief output comprised chairs, tables, and sofas, al- 
though in a later chapter will be taken up the miscellaneous 
articles which he made for special purposes. His chairs 
are of few types, and the variations of these types are 


chiefly marked by the decorative elements. 
62 





PLATE XX XTX.) DINING ]TABEH 
END VIEW (BELOW) SIDE VIEW (ABOVEB) 








PLATE 


are 


DROP-LEAF TABLE. 
SIDE VIEWS 





END AND 





AIAVL-ONINIG NOISNALXA 


“ITX ALVId 

















FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 63 


The type of chair which is earliest in style, if not in point 
of date, is that in which the Sheraton influence is strongest. 
This type has the horseshoe-shaped seat, with two straight 
reeded legs in front and with back legs gently curved, con- 
tinuing the line of the back posts. 

In this type, the known variations are as follows: The horse- 
shoe seat is reeded as are the back posts, the crossbars of the 
back, and the front legs which terminate in small brass lions’ 
feet below the characteristic baluster turning at the bottom. 
The two diagonal crossbars are reeded and an oval rosette 
marks the crossing. The upper back panel is carved with 
the “thunderbolt”? or wheat design. (Plate I.) A second 
variation has a double-crossing of four reeded diagonal bars 
with two rosettes. (Plate II.) A third variation differ- 
ing slightly from the others retains the horseshoe seat with 
reeded edge and the same curves of the back posts and top 
panel. It is distinguished by the employment of curved bars 
in the back edged by half-round fillets and joined by a small 
eight-sided rosette. Its legs, rectangular in plan and set at 
a 45° angle, are gentle reverse curves with the fronts carved 
in acanthus. They end in brass lions’ feet. The carved 
top panel of the back has the laurel pattern. (Plate II.) 

The full Directoire influence is seen in the easy, flowing 
lines of the second type of chair. The decorative elements 
which are combined in this are the lyre, the dog’s foot, the 
carved slat, the acanthus, reeding, and plain panels. There 
are numerous combinations which were made—the lyre 
back with dog’s foot or acanthus legs, the carved slat back 
with both of these legs, and both of these backs with moulded 
front legs. ‘The curve of the back posts is not continuous, 


64 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


breaking slightly at the junction of the seat rails with the 
line flowing more definitely into the seat than into the back 
legs. The front of the back posts and upper side of the 
side seat rails are reeded, the front seat rail is reeded below 
the loose, upholstered seat. The top panel of the back 
is uncarved but veneered with elaborately grained wood, 
although one example has this member fluted. The front 
legs are cut in a gentle concave curve. The lyres and carved 
slats are of the type described in the preceding chapter. 
Small turned buttons cover the ends of the tenons of the 
front seat rail and the top panel of the back. 

A third general type of chair exhibits the introduction of 
Empire influence in the legs which are composed of double 
reverse curves, crossed in the centre, plain or reeded, and 
ending in brass lions’ feet. Of this type two arrangements 
of legs occur, one with the curved legs on both sides joined 
with a turned stretcher, the other with the curved legs at 
the front and the usual square legs at the back. (Plate 
XIII.) In the latter the stretcher from the crossing of the 
curves runs back to join a stretcher between the two back 
legs. The top back panel in chairs of this type is usually 
carved with laurel. The meeting of the intersecting curves 
of the legs is marked by either a turned button or a lion’s 
mask. The backs of the type are filled with either curved 
or diagonal bars. 

These are the three general types of chair from point of 
view of form. A few exceptions occur, however, which are 
simply different combinations of elements included among 
those already mentioned. An armchair of each of these 
three types is illustrated. The first, with reverse-curved 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 65 


acanthus legs, reeded horseshoe seat, curved back bars 
and laurel panel, matches a similar side chair. (Plate IIT.) 
The second, with concave moulded legs, reeded arms and 
back posts, has an eight-sided panel in the centre of the slat 
supported by carved scrolls. The panel is surrounded by 
a flat raised band. The materialis curly mahogany. (Plate 
B, Fig. 8.) The third armchair has the crossed reverse 
curves at the side joined by a turned stretcher. It has 
curved back bars and laurel panel at top. The illustration 
of this chair shows also a footstool made as part of the same 
drawing-room set from which the chair comes. (Plate XI.) 

The arms of the first and third types are curved and rest 
upon turned balusters, in one case reeded. It is the same ar- 
rangement as the Phyfe sofa arm and is Sheraton in deri- 
vation. The arm of the second type of chair is set on ascroll. 

In all of these chairs the top line of the back dips down in 
a curve which adds to comfort as well as beauty, while the 
decoration is combined in many ways and undoubtedly 
was used in other combinations in chairs which have not 
come down to us. 3 

The little window benches are more closely related to 
chairs than they are to sofas. The arms are simply reduced 
replicas, in line and detail, of the chair backs. The hand- 
somest one is that with the laurel-leaf pattern in the top 
panel above the curved bars. The little urn-form at the 
base of the posts is carved with water-leaf ornament and 
the legs, ending in brass lions’ feet, are enriched by the 
acanthus. A second bench has no carving except the 
small rosette at the crossing of the back bars, while a 
third has the upper panel fluted to match the chairs of 


66 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


the same set. One very fine bench rests upon the dog feet, 
its rails are carved into panels of drapery, and its seat and 
arms are upholstered. 

A number of chairs, similar in form to the second type 
which we have described, were made in New York with a 
slat entirely carved with cornucopiz or fruit and flowers. 
So far as we know, Phyfe did not make any chairs of this 
sort, at least in his best period. The distinguishing marks 
of the Phyfe chairs are their lines and proportion; the 
presence of reeding (in his later chairs reeding was at times 
replaced by moulding); the gentle sag of the top of the back; 
the outward splay of the side rails which are never parallel; 
and lastly the decoration by carving, reeding, moulding, 
panelling, or turning, in his accustomed designs. 

The material is always mahogany, in some cases curly 
mahogany. The strings of the lyre are brass or whalebone, 
the key handles and tips of ebony. ‘The seats are either 
loose, upholstered ones held in place by screws, or they are 
caned. The latter were covered by loose, squab cushions. 

These, then, are the three main types of chairs with their 
variations which the illustrations will present more clearly 
than any verbal description. 














LE pene 








PLATE XLIII. LIBRARY TABLE 











PLATE XLVI. CARD TABLE, CROSSED DYRE 
PEDESTAL 





THE FURNITURE 


SOFAS 


THE sofas are closely related to the chairs, which they fre- 
quently were made to match—that is to say, certain of the 
forms or carved decorations found in the chairs are repeated 
in the sofas. In the sofas we have practically the same 
three types seen in the chairs, although in this case they are 
not so definitely demarked one from another. 

The first and most usual type is Sheraton of a form much 
used both in America and in England at the end of the 
eighteenth century. This is the design with a straight 
wooden top rail decorated in some way, wooden curved 
arms resting on small balusters, wooden front and side rails 
straight or partly curved, and six or eight legs, always four 
in front. (Plates XII and XIV.) 

In the Phyfe sofas of this group the top rail of the back 
is panelled, usually into three rectangular panels. These 
panels are carved with typical ornament—drapery swags, 
‘“‘thunderbolts,’’ wheat, or fluting—and are surrounded 


with one or two half-round fillet mouldings. The top edges 
67 


68 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


of the arms which continue the curve of the back are reeded 
and end in a slight scroll which turns under and rests upon 
a small baluster. The shaft of this little baluster is reeded 
and the urn-shaped member at its base carved with leaf 
ornament. The arms in most of these sofas curve slightly 
out, then in, which gives them an inviting air. Some, how- 
ever, come straight forward at right angles to the back. 

The front and side rails of the seat, which form a con- 
tinuous frame, are reeded. In the straight-armed sofas, the 
front rail of the seat is straight and covered by the up- 
holstery; in those with curved arms, the front rail of the 
seat is reeded, not covered by upholstery, and joins the side 
rail on a wide curve, on which the baluster of the arm is set 
at an angle. The short legs, too, are reeded and are usually 
turned to a profile with a slight entasis. The bottom mem- 
ber of the leg is the slightly bulging turning. 

These sofas are upholstered, arms, back, and seat, or are 
caned. The main variations of this type are those resulting 
from combinations of ornament in the back panels. There 
are examples of all of these variations, where the front seat 
rail is covered with upholstery. 

Unlike chairs of the second type, that showing Directoire 
influence, the sofas of this second group are few and far 
between. The most striking example is that with twin 
lyres in the arms shown in Plate XV. Here are seen several! 
innovations. The top is of figured mahogany in one long 
narrow panel. From the back a short but finely sweep- 
ing curve runs out and joins that of the arms. The arms 
in profile resemble the lyre-back chair, with plain top 
panel and the two lyres, side by side, ajouré, fill the space 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 69 


below. ‘The lines of the arms sweep down into that of the 
seat rail. The legs are made up of scrolls in cornucopia 
form. Reeding preponderates in the decoration, though 
a little fine carving occurs on the lyres. The back and seat 
are upholstered. 

Much the same lines of seat, arms, and back occur in the 
sofa in Plate XVI. Here three plain panels fill the top 
rail, while arms, seat, and back are upholstered. In the 
legs, however, is seen a decided Empire touch, made up 
as they are of lion’s foot and eagle’s wing. This is one of 
the most graceful and distinguished of Phyfe sofas. 

We know of no sofas or settees carrying out literally the 
lines of the chairs of the second type. They may not have 
seemed desirable for practical reasons, since the concave 
legs on the chairs, if repeated in the centre of a sofa, would 
project in front of the seat rail and interfere with com- 
fortable use. ‘These other two solutions are much better 
studied than such a chair-back settee would have been. 

The third type, Empire in character, is represented by 
two treatments of the same scheme. In the splendid 
drawing-room suite from which our cane-seated Empire 
chair comes is the handsome sofa shown in Plate XVII. 
In this, the upper portion reflects the general Directoire 
lines of the preceding two sofas, but the legs are treated 
with the crossed reverse curves, brass lions’ heads at their 
crossing and brass lions’ feet at their base. The legs and 
arms are reeded and the back and arm panels are carved 
with laurel branches and with crossed cornucopiz. The 
back, arms, and seat are caned and loose cushions were tied 
over them. The proportions and general lines are very 


70 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


fine, the only point which can be criticized being the junc- 
tion between the curved legs and the front rail. This re- 
markable sofa is still in the possession of the family for 
which it was made and is part of a suite comprising also 
side chairs, armchairs, footstools, and console tables. The 
little settee shown in Plate XXIII is a single treatment of 
the crossed curved legs whose proportions are rendered 
heavier for support. The carved panels of the back, 
contracted into different proportions from those usually 
found, are all from designs found in the sofas of the first 
type. The reeded seat rails of this and the preceding piece 
are straight. 

These sofas show the approach of the chair-maker to the 
more ambitious problem and indicate clearly how much 
more than a chair-maker Phyfe was. The relationship 
which they bear to the chairs is proper, but the new problem 
is met on its own ground and advantage taken of all its 
possibilities. In construction great care is shown, the 
seat supports underneath the caning are gently curved to 
allow for the elasticity of the cane, and these supports are 
mortised into a dove-tailed groove in the seat rail, a re- 
finement of construction which renders easily distinguish- 
able Phyfe’s work from good reproduction. 

From these sofas and chairs we may be able to draw some 
conclusions as to their chronology. In those of the Sheraton 
type the carved panel details are the drapery swags, thunder- 
bolts, wheat ears, and fluting. In the most characteristic 
Empire chairs and sofas we find the laurel used practically 
always, combined with cornucopie panels. ‘These latter 
details probably succeed the War of 1812 when patriotic 














PLATE XLVII. SIDEBOARD WITH VENEERED, 
CARVED, AND REEDED DECORATIONS 


GTEVL ONIAWAS “ITIATX WLVId 








PLATE 


SLLX. 





BUFFET 








PLATE Le SERVING TAREE 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE fa 


motives were much in vogue. Of French origin, these mo- 
tives were coming over at about this time and with the pros- 
perous years succeeding the war these two decorative mo- 
tives, one symbolic of glory or victory, the other symbolizing 
plenty and fruitfulness, the results of successful war, were 
popular. We know that one of the suites comprising these 
details was made about 1817. 

The decorative details of the Sheraton sofas would bespeak 
a date between 1800 and 1813, when combined with purely 
Sheraton form. However, their employment on the smal! 
Empire sofa (Plate XVIII) would suggest that Phyfe felt 
their quality so lasting as not to be affected by fads or styles, 
and he has retained them here. We may conclude that it 
is impossible to date Phyfe furniture exactly from the 
decorative elements alone, but only from a combination of the 
furniture form and decoration. And even this method is 
not wholly satisfactory, for we know that some of the simple 
Sheraton Pembroke tables were made as late as 1820. It 
is well, therefore, not to be too meticulous in dating the 
furniture of his good periods, but rather to relate its changes 
purely stylistically, and date it all between 1800 and 1825, 
although that with Empire features may be placed after 
1813. 








VI 
THE FURNITURE 


TABLES 


Tue number and variety of Phyfe’s tables are so great as to 
render very difficult their classification into groups from 
which there shall not be a number of exceptions. The 
uses for which these tables were made are many. There 
are card, console, and library tables, dining, serving, and 
sofa tables, sewing, dressing, writing tables, and candle- 
stands. 

In general structural form, they fall into one of three 
types: the first, with legs at the corners; the second, sup- 
ported upon a pedestal of one sort or another; the third, 
supported at the ends. They differ very much in the 
shape of the tops, in the treatment of the supporting ele- 
ments of legs and pedestals, as well as in the inclusion of 
drawers. 

The first type, the earliest stylistically though not nec- 
essarily chronologically, is supported on straight reeded 
legs. It includes the fine Sheraton card tables such as 
those illustrated in Plates XIX and XX, the Pembroke 


72 


FURNITURE MASTERPIECES % 


table with reeded legs (Plate XXII), the dining-tables 
such as that in Plate XXIII, and the game table (Plate 
XXI). Here we have simple, straightforward table con- 
struction, carefully studied for stability and use, the 
proportions beautifully balanced and the decoration sup- 
pressed. The legs are generally reeded and end in the 
typical turned member at the bottom. The skirtings are 
veneered and have a narrow border whose grain runs in a 
different direction from that of the rest of the wood. The 
corner blocks are either veneered or carved with small 
panel decoration. The tops are often shaped in the clover- 
leaf pattern and the edges of the tops are not often 
reeded. 

The significant points for attribution are the construction 
details, the typical carved or veneered ornament, the turned 
member at the bottom of the reeded legs, and the subtle 
curve in the clover-leaf top. 

The three finest tables in the type are the game table 
in Plate XXI and the card tables in Plates XX and 
XIX. The game table exhibits not only ingenuity in its 
arrangement, but great beauty of line and proportion. The 
removable top, baize-covered on one side, hides a backgam- 
mon board sunk below the surface. The points are inlaid 
in ivory, alternating white and green, and little ivory sockets 
around the edge receive the scoring pegs. A small drawer 
at the right of each player is for the counters. Below the 
central portion of the skirting, between the drawer fronts, 
is concealed a chess board which slides out and is placed 
over the backgammon board, whose space it fits exactly, 
lying flush with the top. Nothing could be simpler, nothing 


74 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


more perfectly adapted to use. The corner blocks are ve- 
neered with the small rectangle with concave corners. 

The two card tables are purely Sheraton, the one with 
light mahogany veneer on the skirt enhanced by veneered 
blocks, the other with carved central and corner blocks, the 
latter with the Prince of Wales feathers. The clover-leaf 
tops show the subtle curve mentioned as a Phyfe character- 
istic. 

The Pembroke tables, such as that in Plate XXII, con- 
tain one drawer whose front is edged by a half-round fillet. 
The corner blocks are veneered. 

The fine dining table (Plate XXIII), is enriched only by a 
narrow banding of dark wood at the bottom of the skirt, 
this banding running across the blocks above the legs in 
place of a veneered rectangle. 

A variation of this four-legged type of table is seen in a 
pair of flap-leaf console tables whose corners are cut off at 
a 45° angle, the legs set at this angle and composed of a 
reverse curve decorated with acanthus joining with the 
dog’s leg and foot. Medallions above are carved with 
rosettes, while the central block has a panel of carved 
drapery swags. The edge is not reeded. 

The second type, the pedestal table, has two main di- 
visions. In one of these the pedestal is composed of a 
turned central support from which curving legs spread out. 
In the second there is a platform which the curving legs 
support, and upon this platform rests the portion upholding 
the superstructure of the table. 

Within the first group of this type the turned support is 
designed in several forms, the most usual of which has a: 











PEATE il.. CHEVAL GLASS 


ATLLSAUL UNV ASVYD ONVIid “Ibis aLvid 





OF DUNCAN PHYFE 15 


large urn-shaped member as its predominating feature. 
The «:rn is sometimes plain, more often carved with acanthus 
or reeded. The base moulding about the urn is frequently 
carved. Another of these turned shafts (Plate XXXVI) is 
undecorated except for a broad reeded drum near its base. 
The legs—three or four—are either carved with acanthus 
and reeding on their top surfaces or are moulded. The 
feet are lion’s paws, usually brass, although sometimes of 
wood. The tables with this form of base include drop-leaf 
tables and those card tables with three legs, with or without 
skirting, containing a mechanism by which, when the flap 
is lowered, the rear leg swings out and forms with the other 
two an accurate tripod (Plate XXXII). The small sewing 
stands with rounded ends are often supported on this type 
of base, while the little tripod stand with tip-top (Plate 
XXVIII) is a rare example in the type. 

The tops are curved in single curve or clover-leaf pattern. 
A border of veneer usually surrounds them. The edges are 
sometimes reeded, the skirtings veneered, and in the drop- 
leaf tables the corner blocks—trelict of the straight-leg 
Pembroke—are veneered in designs and finished with a 
delicate turned drop. These tables are among Phyfe’s most 
characteristic product. This type includes card and con- 
sole, sewing, writing, and dining tables, such as those illus- 
trated in Plates XX XIII and XXXYV. 

In the second group of the pedestal tables, a platform 
upon which vertical supports rest is upheld by curved legs. 
This group must be subdivided into two kinds. The first 
division comprises those tables whose super-structure is 
supported upon four posts which rest upon the little plat- 


76 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


form. The second division includes the tables in which 
crossed lyres act as the immediate support of the portion 
above. | 

Of the type with four posts, the chief variations result 
from differently turned balusters which follow several forms, 
such as those shown in the drawings in Plate E. The 
sides of the platforms are either plain, panelled, fluted, or 
carved with a rectangular rosette made up of acanthus and 
plain leaves radiating from a centre. These tables are il- 
lustrated in Plates XX XIII to XLI, and include sewing 
and writing stands, drop-leaf centre tables, side tables with 
a flap, and dining tables. 

The lyre-base tables have few varieties. The one in 
Plate XLVI has the rope motive on the tops of the curved 
legs and on the edges of the lyre. The second one, in Plate 
XLV, would appear to be from Phyfe’s later period. The 
lion’s feet and legs are a trifle clumsy, while the over- 
loading with acanthus deprives the lyre of much of its 
delicacy. This table resembles in so many ways the work of 
a certain Philadelphian contemporary of Phyfe that its 
inclusion would be confusing without definitely mentioning 
it as a late piece whose attribution is chiefly based upon 
structural details not part of its stylistic quality. 

The last general type of table, that whose supports are 
at the end, includes library, sofa, and dressing tables. The 
type is rare, but excellent as a new solution of the problem. 

In Plate XLIII is shown a library table, supported on 
coupled colonettes at each end, from whose fluted base-_ 
block spread out two legs. The top contains a drawer, 
while a shelf for books is placed below. This is a good 





PLATE LIII 


POST BEDSTEAD 


HIGH 




















PLATE L1iV.. FOURS YE gue BEDPOSTS 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 77 


example of variation of proportion in studying a special 
problem. The thickness of the skirting, controlled by the 
depth of the drawer, is related pleasantly to the whole 
height of the piece. The decoration exhibits the typical 
methods and designs. The whorled carving and the 
acanthus leaves on the colonettes are similar to those in the 
pair of side tables, one of which is shown in Plate XX XVII. 

Very similar to this is a man’s dressing table not illus- 
trated. Here the interior is fitted with a mirror and with 
compartments necessary for toilet articles and accessories. 
All of the interior cabinet work is beautifully done, the 
edges of the compartments reeded, and little boxes fitted 
into the divisions. 

Two sofa tables (Plates XLII and XLIV) are superb 
examples of absolutely finished workmanship. The ends 
of one are supported upon a lyre, the ends of the other on 
coupled colonettes. The stretchers in both are beautiful 
and delicate; the veneering on the drawers and around the 
top is brilliantly contrasting; the edges are reeded and the 
drop leaves curved. These are both exceptional pieces. 
The lyre is much heavier than those in chairs, sofas, or 
tables. It is carved with acanthus and its edges are reeded. 

These three types of table include a great number of 
variations both in design and decoration. They introduce 
many decorative motives unlike those on the sofas. 

In all of these we see the careful finish of the construction 
which would ordinarily not be found in furniture of the 
period, and the introduction of the tiny details in veneered 
designs which are seen only upon careful examination. 
This careful finish bespeaks more than the qualities of a 


78 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


good workman; it marks the work of an artist-craftsman 
whose interest and love were in his work, and whose com- 
pletely rounded training included both broad design and 
minute detail with complete technical adequacy. 





WH 2 
oR? 





fis Tes ll 


Vil 
THE FURNITURE 


MISCELLANEOUS. PIECES 


Tue large number of miscellaneous pieces bearing the 
mark of Phyfe’s handiwork belies the statement that he 
did not do case furniture. Certainly he did many pieces 
of so-called case furniture, but these were probably made 
on special order to go into rooms where his tables, chairs, or 
sofas had delighted their owners with their beauty and 
their livable qualities. 

One of the most interesting problems which Phyfe had to 
meet occasionally was that of the pianoforte. Very few 
of these survive. The one illustrated herewith (Plate 
LI), dating from about 1820, contains an instrument by 
John Geib, Inc., whose work in New York began before 
1800 and continued until after 1825. Phyfe is supposed 
not to have made piano cases, but only the trestles which 
supported the cases. This case, however, bears so many 
unmistakable signs of Phyfe’s handiwork as to leave little 
doubt that he made both case and trestle. The case is 
veneered in brilliantly grained wood, is inlaid with brass, 


and the vertical blocks, which divide the front into three 
79 


80 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


sections, are veneered with the typical arched rectangle. 
Reeding, too, is used, and carved rosettes. The composi- 
tion of the front of the case is well studied. It is divided 
into three sections, the two to the left lifting up and dis- 
closing the keyboard. 

The trestle is designed on a basis of Phyfe’s typical mo- 
tives—the urn, the curved legs with acanthus and reeding, 
the reeded stretcher, and at the end a carved flower instead 
of the more probable lion’s head. A lyre in the centre sug- 
gests the original presence of pedals, but it would appear 
upon examination that pedals never existed. The strings 
of the instrument are covered by a thin, hinged wooden 
lid painted green with a flower border. 

Another piano trestle (Plate LV) differs in detail 
from the first. The urns here are carved with acanthus, 
the stretcher is not divided into two parts as was the other, 
and its end, where it mortises into the block below the urn 
is treated with a lion’s mask. Its proportions, too, are lighter, 
since it probably supported a smaller case without pedals. 

The little sideboard (Plate XLVII) and the serving 
tables in Plates XLVII to L are consistently Sheraton 
in derivation. The sideboard is a most surprising find— 
a complete piece of Phyfe case furniture handled in masterly 
fashion. Here veneering forms the chief decoration including 
arched rectangles with borders mitred up to them, veneered 
borders on the drawers and around the top, the edge bounded 
by two half-round fillets and a flat channel, the reeded legs 
topped by acanthus leaves and finished at the bottom with 
the typical turning. Surely a fine, simple, dignified little 
sideboard, worthy descendant of Sheraton’s design. 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 81 


The serving table and buffet are Sheraton, too, but of 
simpler forms and less elaborate decoration. The legs are 
reeded and carry up to the top, which curves out over them 
at the corners. They preserve the same simplicity as do 
the tables of the first type. 

The cheval glass (Plate LI) makes us wonder why 
Phyfe did so few of these graceful articles of bedroom fur- 
niture. He did dressing-table glasses of the same general 
character although more carefully decorated. One dressing 
glass is swung between lyres turned at right angles to its 
axis and rests upon a base with three drawers. The edges of 
the lyres are roped, the base between the drawers decorated 
with little turned colonettes. 

His beds were derived both from Sheraton and Hepple- 
white models. The one shown in Plate LII has four 
carved posts, although some of them have only the two 
footposts carved, the headposts being simply turned 
pieces. There are seven different known designs for bed- 
posts, four of which are shown in Plate C of the drawings. 
The decoration includes reeding, acanthus, water-leaf, 
drapery, wheat-ears, and palmetto, combined in various 
charming ways. One handsome bed, not shown, has a 
footboard filled with cane and with lions’ masks at the 
corners of the heavy posts. 





AYXY 
Zs. y 


LM 





Vill 
CONCLUSION 


Mucu discussion in recent years has centred around the 
‘“‘humanities,” the related study and cultivation of the 
languages, literature, history, and archeology of Greece and 
Rome. It is the conviction of their value as a moral or 
intellectual discipline and as refining, cultivating, and 
humanizing influences which has led their supporters to 


include the “‘humanities’ 
education. The resultant knowledge which such studies 


as a necessary part of a liberal 


give creates a background for modern life and a sense of 
values that are difficult if not impossible of attainment in 
any other way. 

As a part of a liberal education to-day, the scope of the 


99 


so-called “‘humanities” has necessarily widened beyond 
the original limits, and in the new sense must include much 
of the literature, history, and art of epochs of the world’s 
development successive to the times of classic Greece and 
Rome. This wider application of the term may justly be 


employed if we think of the “humanities” as an investi- 
82 


FURNITURE MASTERPIECES _ 83 


gation less of things Greek and Roman than of things 
secular and human. 

In humanizing any period of the past, the study not only 
of the contemporary languages, literature, and history is 
important, but that of the artistic expression of the time 
must also be closely related to them. The four major arts 
do not alone suffice to. tell the human story of a time gone 
by. They indicate frequently the highest aspirations or 
accomplishments which marked the summit of a people’s 
development. For the more true, more accurate story, 
filled with human interest and marking a high average of 
general taste, we must turn to the decorative and utili- 
tarian arts with which that people surrounded themselves 
in their daily life. 

We may learn of the great movements of races, the inter- 
national give-and-take of territory or riches; we may fill 
in this knowledge with a just proportion of economic detail 
and of religious and moral influences; but to round out the 
picture of a particular people at a particular time we must 
appreciate the intellectual, artistic, and social elements 
which entered into their daily life, which influenced them 
continually and responded to their tastes and preferences, 
sesthetic and practical. 

The study of the finest work of the cabinet-makers of the 
past thus bears a distinct relation to the general human- 
izing investigation of any period of world history, and the 
importance of such study is in direct proportion to the im- 
portance of the period in question. 

The short space of a quarter of a century in New York 
which we have striven to portray was certainly one of the 


84 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


most important in the whole history of the city’s growth. 
It was marked by a striking increase in economic pros- 
perity and commercial expansion, a growth of civic con- 
sciousness and pride, a vivid interest in artistic and intel- 
lectual pursuits, a horizon widening from that of a pro- 
vincial town to that of a metropolis, with the emphasis 
upon foreign taste and foreign ways which was a natural 
accompaniment. The War of 1812 was a quickening influ- 
ence in the direction of consolidating this civic conscious- 
ness, as it was in binding together all parts of the Union. 
The Constitution had weathered its first real storm and the 
policies of its creators were justified. ‘The economic revival 
after the war was rapid, and the city and nation entered upon 
a fortunate period of peace and prosperity. 

In the qualities of the furniture which Duncan Phyfe 
made for the people of New York at this time may be seen 
the results of the varied influences which distinguished the 
period, not only in the city but along the whole seaboard. 
The demand for fine craftsmanship and materials arose 
directly from both the increasing wealth of the population 
and the artistic appreciation which they possessed. The 
unanimity of taste which resulted from the growth of a 
compact metropolitan society is reflected in the consist- 
ency and restraint of the furniture design which appealed to 
them, a design whose simplicity recalled in romantic associa- 
tion the glories of an earlier republic, that of Rome. Their 
widening horizon is shown in the European flavour which 
permeates much of this work, partially English in response 
to inherent British preferences, but French in many ele- 
ments of form where fashion dictated. The intellectual 














PLATE CV. TRESTLE FOR SALE IANO 


























WASHSTAND 


PLATE LY 2: 


OF DUNCAN PHYFE 85 


content in the design bespeaks distinctly an appreciative 
taste in those who so fully felt its refinement and delicate 
subtlety. 

Thus in the work of Phyfe we have an apposite example 
of how closely the utilitarian and decorative arts are bound 
up with all the other phases of human civilization and 
progress. His work was a development of an old tradition 
within the limits of which his own art advanced, respond- 
ing to many contemporary influences. 

This tradition had continued as long as the interest of 
creative minds was turned in its direction, but with the 
growth of scientific investigation in the nineteenth century 
the preponderant interests of the cultivated public and of 
its creative minds swung away from artistic creation to that 
of scientific development. It is natural that the great in- 
dustrial revolution of the nineteenth century should thus 
have diverted to itself most of the creative energy which 
for many centuries had given expression in artistic form to 
a part of its power. Robert Fulton and Samuel F. B. Morse 
are examples of men whose lives spanned this transition 
from art to science and whose creative energies could be 
turned to one or the other for the benefit of either. 

There is one idea which should perhaps lead all others in 
a consideration of the work of Phyfe. That is the im- 
portance of the artistic tradition which he carried with him 
through his best years, a tradition which his furniture ex- 
presses as perfectly as does the dignified architecture of the 
early republic. 

This artistic tradition was the heritage of the United 
States long before their independence was achieved. It 


86 FURNITURE MASTERPIECES 


still remained their heritage for fifty years afterward, only 
then to be cast aside. To this tradition it would seem 
logical to return again if within its limitations can be 
properly comprised the requirements, utilitarian and es- 
thetic, which the taste and usage of modern times demand. 
And for a suggestion of how one skillful furniture-designer 
and cabinet-maker utilized this tradition and adapted it 
to his own time, a study of Phyfe’s handiwork offers much 
valuable help and tells a tale of high ideals in workman- 
ship, of beauty, grace, and imagination in design, and of a 
close approximation to the requirements of usage as dictated 
by social custom, elements which are the essentials of all 
utilitarian art which deserves to rank as handmaid to the 
great art of architecture. 


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